,    THE 

BOARDMAN 
FAMILY 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   -    CHICAGO   •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY  •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Lm 

TORONTO 


THE 
BOARDMAN  FAMILY 


BY 

MARY  S.   WATTS 

Author  of  "Nathan  Burke,"  "The  Rise 
of  Jennie  Gushing,"  etc. 


fork 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1918 

A.U  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1938 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published,  April,  1918 


PAET  I 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

AND  SOME  OTHERS 


CHAPTER  I 

ONE  Tuesday  evening  towards  the  Christmas  holi 
days  in  an  early  year  of  the  earliest  decade  of  this 
century,  there  was  an  awning  tunnel  erected  across  the 
sidewalk  and  a  strip  of  jute  carpeting  laid  down  the  steps 
in  front  of  Mr.  Matson's,  Number  Two,  Pine  Street,  the 
North  Hill ;  and  a  good  many  private  conveyances  —  more 
carriages  than  automobiles  in  those  remote  days  —  were 
rumbling  up  and  halting  and  presently  rumbling  off  after 
exhilarating  noises  of  doors  slammed  and  numbers  shouted. 
Mr.  Matson  had  a  dancing-school.  It  long  ago  ceased  to 
be  in  good  taste  to  call  him  Professor  or  his  establishment 
an  Academy,  as  was  the  fashion  once  upon  a  time  in  other 
parts  of  the  world  besides  ours.  Likewise  the  midwinter 
entertainment  and  the  one  he  gave  at  Easter  were  not 
"  Soirees  " —  perish  the  thought !  They  were  unpretend 
ing  Exhibitions  of  Dancing  by  the  pupils  of  Mr.  Norman 
R.  Matson's  School  in  the  Classical,  Ballet  and  Ball-Room 
Departments,  from  half -past  eight  to  ten ;  general  dancing 
after  the  exhibition.  The  pupils  who  exhibited  were 
mainly  young  girls  with  a  rare  boy  or  so ;  at  this  date  So 
ciety  at  large  had  not  yet  begun  to  take  a  vivid  interest  in 
the  art,  and  a  dancing-school  was  still  eminently  a  place  of 
juvenile  education. 

The  carriages  rolled  up  gloriously,  and  Mr.  Matson's 
coloured  man  with  white  cotton  gloves  on,  opened  the  doors 

3 


BOABDMAN  FAMILY 


and  dispensed  the  little  numbered  tickets,  and  there  de 
scended  a  great  array  of  shiny  satin  slippers  and  foaming 
tulle  skirts,  beaded,  glittering  and  glancing  (the  Fairy 
Ballet),  of  laced  sandals,  fillets,  cheesecloth  draperies  (the 
Urn-Dance  of  the  Priestesses  of  Minerva)  of  crinoline, 
flowered  cretonne  and  cottony-looking  wigs  —  the  Colonial 
Minuet.  There  was  a  kind  of  environing  haze  of  par 
ents,  of  course,  but  nobody  need  notice  them;  and  always  a 
set  of  gawky  high-school  lads  gathered  about  the  halls  and 
boys'  dressing-rooms  for  the  general  dancing  promised 
later  on.  They  could  all  dance  ;  doubtless  many  of  them 
were  capable  of  as  good  dancing  as  any  that  would  be  seen 
that  evening;  but  nothing  on  earth  would  have  induced 
these  young  gentlemen  to  "  exhibit."  Get  up  in  front  of 
all  that  crowd?  Never!  Although  getting  up  in  front 
of  all  that  crowd  was  precisely  what  they  did  when  the 
exhibiting  was  over  !  Let  some  wiser  mind  explain  the 
mystery;  and  let  him  also  take  note  of  another  curious 
fact,  namely  :  that  although  Papa  and  Mama,  even  Grand 
papa  and  Grandmamma  and  Uncle  Joe  and  Aunt  Sarah 
invariably  turned  out  in  force,  big  brother  who  was  in 
Judge  Whoppingfee's  office,  who  smoked  cigars  and  had  a 
nightkey  and  belonged  to  the  Harvard  Club,  and  wore 
evening-clothes  in  the  evening  —  unlike  Dad  who  slouched 
around  in  the  same  old  business-suit  he  had  had  on  all  day 
—  big  brother  never  went  to  the  Exhibition  !  And  older 
sister  who  came  out  last  winter  and  got  three  hundred  and 
ten  bouquets  at  her  party,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Debu 
tantes'  Cotillion  and  appeared  at  the  Eiding  Club  Ama 
teur  Circus  —  nobody  ever  saw  her  at  the  Exhibition  ! 

After  a  while  there  came  a  livery-stable  equipage 
whence  alighted  first  a  tall  and  slender  figure  with  a  three- 
cornered  hat  topping  off  an  accurately  dressed  peruke,  and 
a  prodigious,  long,  dramatic  black  cloak  wrapped  in  folds 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  5 

and  held  well  up  about  the  eyes ;  it  made  one  think  of  cer 
tain  novels  of  Mr.  Weyman  and  Mr.  Anthony  Hope  which 
were  new  then  and  classics  by  now;  and  it  caused  the 
porter  to  look  twice  —  for  that  matter  anybody  would  have 
looked  twice  —  and  exclaim :  "  Well,  sir,  Mr.  Everett,  I 
didn't  know  you  for  a  minute !  "  Whereat  the  other 
laughed  affably,  with  a  flash  of  white  teeth  in  the  shadow 
of  his  mantle.  He  had  a  hand  on  the  open  carriage-door, 
but  did  not  abandon  his  graceful  pose  —  being,  it  would 
seem,  very  deliberate  in  all  his  movements  —  until  the 
three  ladies  within  had  all  bundled  out  unassisted,  a  cir 
cumstance  which  in  spite  of  his  little  shocked  exclamation 
and  gesture  as  he  finally  turned  his  attention  to  them, 
appeared  not  to  surprise  or  disturb  any  one  of  them  in  the 
least.  All  three  managed  excellently  without  his  help  — 
the  girl  in  the  mantilla  and  the  short  red  skirt,  the  plump 
lady,  the  tall,  bony  older  one ;  and  they  all  sprang  up  the 
steps  with  an  almost  equal  sprightliness  of  motion,  not 
withstanding  the  visible  difference  in  their  ages,  and 
slipped  out  of  sight  behind  the  dressing-room  doors  while 
Mr.  Everett  was  still  giving  orders  to  the  hackman. 

He  gave  them  with  a  perfectly  unaffected  grand  air, 
like  a  young  prince,  and  went  on  up  into  the  vestibule 
where  amongst  the  gawky  youths,  a  particularly  gawky 
long,  lank  one  addressed  him,  with  an  up-and-down  glance. 

"  'Lo,  Ev !  " 

"  'Lo,  Sam !  "  said  Everett,  making  for  the  dressing- 
room.  The  other  followed  him.  Within,  some  of  the  boys 
were  smoking  cigarettes,  a  few  of  the  youngest  ones  in 
dulged  in  very  mild  and  subdued  skylarking,  but  mostly 
they  wore  the  dispirited  air  peculiar  to  the  youthful  male 
on  festive  occasions,  the  group  who  were  to  take  part  with 
Everett  looking  not  nearly  so  cheerful  as  the  average  col 
lection  of  pall-bearers.  They  sat  hunched  on  the  tables, 


6  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

or  leaned  against  the  walls,  and  gave  him  a  depressed 
greeting. 

"  Some  costume !  "  one  of  them  remarked  as  Everett 
de-rolled  the  majestic  cloak  —  without  either  envy  or  deri 
sion,  however.  He  stated  it  as  a  plain  fact,  and  the  rest 
accepted  it  in  the  same  manner.  This  was  the  more  no 
ticeable  because  Everett's  millinery,  worn  by  any  of  the 
others,  would  have  subjected  the  unlucky  lad  to  pitiless 
mocking  comment.  It  was  a  confection  of  black  satin 
coat  and  knee-breeches,  a  waistcoat  brocaded  in  opalescent 
hues,  abundant  lace  ruffles,  buckled  shoes  of  an  unmanly 
shape  and  size,  a  cane  and  eyeglass  —  in  short,  the  full 
and  carefully  studied  get-up  of  an  eighteenth-century  beau. 
The  members  of  Everett's  seventeen-year-old  circle,  one 
and  all,  would  have  cringed  away  in  agonies  of  self-con 
sciousness,  they  would  have  looked,  acted,  felt,  like  mor 
tally  clumsy  young  clowns,  they  would  have  been  "  guyed  " 
to  extinction  by  their  fellows  had  they  dared  to  come  out 
in  such  an  array.  But  nobody  poked  either  fun  or  satire 
at  Everett ;  and  indeed  he  wore  the  clothes  with  a  conquer 
ing  indifference  as  if  he  had  had  them  on  every  day  of 
his  life,  and  somehow  invested  their  romance  with  con 
viction  and  dignity.  His  half-dozen  companions  in  the 
Minuet  surveyed  him  and  anon  privately  reviewed  their 
own  makeshifts  —  retired  coats  and  trousers  trimmed  and 
faced  by  maternal  hands,  vests  which  were  an  ingenious 
falsework  fashioned  from  scraps  of  curtain-stuff,  Susie's 
last  season  hat  —  tell  it  not  in  Gath !  —  pinned  into  shape 
and  its  identity  further  obscured  by  some  ghastly  parody 
of  a  cockade  —  they  eyed  it  all  with  fresh  misgivings, 
fresh  resentment  for  having  been  driven  into  this  thing. 
Even  so,  they  did  not  seek  solace  by  taking  a  fling  at 
Everett;  perhaps  they  admired  him,  or  were  impressed 
by  him,  or  really  liked  him  too  much. 


THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY  7 

"  Hire  yours  ?  "  they  inquired  wistfully. 

"  No.  I  wouldn't  like  to  wear  anything  that  all  kinds 
of  people  had  had  on  before.  If  it  were  some  fellow's 
clothes  that  I  knew,  of  course  —  I  wouldn't  mind  that. 
But  these  costume  places  — !  Not  for  me !  "  Everett 
wagged  his  head  and  laughed,  and  the  rest  laughed  with 
him,  appreciatively,  though  not  one  of  them  shared  his 
feeling,  or  would  have  owned  to  it,  at  any  rate ;  it  seemed 
natural  and  not  unworthy  for  Everett  to  be  thus  fastid 
ious.  "  I  had  it  made.  Might  as  well  and  be  done  with 
it.  Then  there'll  be  something  ready  in  case  I  ever  have 
to  go  through  with  this  flossy  business  again,"  he  con 
cluded.  Coming  from  him,  the  argument  sounded  prac 
tical,  and  struck  a  note  of  humorous  common-sense;  it 
eluded  criticism.  And  Everett  sat  down,  disposing  him 
self  and  his  raiment  with  grimacing  care;  he  had  not  so 
much  as  glanced  into  a  mirror  since  entering  the  room. 

"  Had  it  made  ?  Gee,  that  didn't  set  your  father  back 
a  whole  lot !  Oh,  yes,  it  did  not !  "  remarked  the  boy  they 
called  Sam  with  engaging  frankness.  Sam  was  not  going 
to  appear  in  the  Exhibition;  in  fact,  he  would  not  have 
been  much  of  an  ornament  to  any  scene,  having  just 
reached  that  stage  in  a  gentleman's  career  when  he  seems 
to  be  all  feet  and  hands,  and  nameless  bones,  knobs,  joints; 
and  when  nothing  fits  or  stays  in  place,  so  that  the  ex 
ceedingly  cheap,  ready-made  suit  he  was  wearing  (and 
outgrowing)  probably  looked  as  well  on  him  as  anything 
could  have,  no  matter  how  costly.  Nor  would  Samuel's 
blunt  features,  tawny  skin  and  square  mouth  (which  was 
furnished  with  a  very  fine  set  of  big  white  teeth  that  had 
the  look  of  imperishable  strength  and  soundness)  have 
accorded  handsomely  with  the  gay  and  delicate  frippery 
Everett  was  sporting.  "  You  haven't  got  your  growth 
yet,  Ev,"  he  went  on.  "  Chances  are  in  a  year  or  two 


8  THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY 

you  won't  be  able  to  get  into  that  nappy  vest.  How 
about  it  ? " 

"  Oh,  I  can  always  sell  it,"  retorted  Everett  easily.  "  I 
spoke  about  that  to  Dad.  He  said  it  was  all  right." 

"  Sell  it,  huh  ?  Well,  I  can't  shake  my  father  down 
that  easy !  "  Sam  said ;  his  tone  expressed  no  discontent, 
as  might  have  been  expected.  Providence  discriminates 
in  the  matter  of  fathers,  and  Master  Samuel  accepted  the 
fact  philosophically.  "  Yours  didn't  come  ?  " 

"Who?  Dad?  No,  he  doesn't  care  for  the  Exhi 
bitions." 

"  I  saw  your  mother,  though." 

"  Oh,  Mother  and  Grandma  are  always  on  hand. 
They'd  come  if  they  had  to  walk ! "  Everett  said. 

The  other  boy,  who  had  been  idly  glancing  about  the 
room,  and  at  every  newcomer  when  the  door  opened,  as 
he  kept  up  this  desultory  talk,  focussed,  his  alert  blue 
eyes  on  Everett  for  a  moment  questioningly.  One  might 
have  guessed  that  the  thought  going  through  his  mind, 
phrased  roughly  in  his  boy's  language  was :  What  if  they 
did  walk  ?  It  wouldn't  hurt  them.  Nobody  was  too  good 
to  walk.  Sam's  own  mother  had  had  to  walk  all  her  days. 
But  it  must  have  been  apparent  to  his  shrewd  scrutiny 
that  Everett  had  spoken  without  conscious  ostentation; 
his  point  of  view  was  genuinely  royal.  At  any  rate,  Sam 
left  the  above  comments  unuttered.  He  merely  said: 
"  Uh-huh,"  and  continued  to  stare  thoughtfully,  cracking 
one  pair  of  fingers  after  another. 

"Mother  has  to  help  Sandra  change  her  dress  any 
how,"  Everett  explained  after  a  moment.  "  You  know 
she's  going  to  be.  in  the  Minuet  after  all.  She's  taking 
Helen  Carruthers'  place.  Helen  fell  and  sprained  her 
ankle ;  you  heard  about  that  ?  " 

"  Uh-huh,"  said  Sam  again. 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  9 

"  Sandra's  going  to  do  Helen's  part,  and  her  own  too, 
that  Spanish  dance,  besides." 

"  Sandra's  some  dancer,"  Sam  affirmed  judicially. 

"  Well,  of  course,  it  wasn't  much  for  her  to  learn  the 
Minuet  with  me  right  there  to  show  her  and  coach  her. 
But  she  never  has  any  trouble  learning  anyhow  —  just 
show  her  a  step  once.  We're  both  that  way.  Been  danc 
ing  all  our  lives,  ever  since  we  were  kids." 

"  That  so  ?  "  said  Sam,  and  studied  the  other  again ;  for 
half  a  second  the  expression  on  his  boyish  face  was  not 
boy-like.  Then  he  remarked  with  the  slightest  possible 
fleeting  grin :  "  At  home  the  folks  think  I'm  a  kid  still." 

"  Yes.  It  takes  'em  forever  to  realize  that  we've 
grown  up."  Everett  agreed  in  so  serious,  simple  and 
matter-of-fact  a  way  that  the  other  boy  was  impressed  in 
spite  of  himself.  His  grin  vanished  along  with  whatever 
immature  and  uncertain  suspicions  he  may  have  enter 
tained  of  a  certain  irony  in  the  spectacle  of  Everett. 

"  That's  so!  "  he  said,  this  time  with  warmth.  "  Gee, 
don't  it  make  you  tired  sometimes  ?  They're  all  right,  of 
course,  but  they're  so  funny.  Say,  do  you  have  a  night- 
key?" 

"  No.  I  don't  want  one  particularly,"  said  Everett 
calmly.  "  I  could  if  I  wanted." 

It  was  on  Sam's  tongue  to  say :  "  Oh,  bosh !  "  Yet, 
as  before,  he  changed  his  mind ;  as  before,  Everett's  serene 
assurance  defeated  him.  Instead  he  began  grumblingly 
to  describe  a  "  run-in "  he  had  had  with  his  father  on 
this  very  subject  that  morning;  he  pulled  up  in  the 
middle  of  the  tale,  surprised  at  himself  and  rather 
ashamed;  and  then  saw  with  mingled  relief  and  resent 
ment  that  Everett  was  not  listening.  Indeed,  the  young 
gentlemen's  confidences  had  to  end  now,  whether  or  no, 
for  the  Exhibition  was  about  to  open.  Chairs  ceased 


10  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

to  scrape  in  the  hall;  the  last  guest  was  seated.  Miss 
Hoffman  (in  a  low-necked  dress  instead  of  her  familiar 
shirt-waist  and  skirt)  was  already  on  the  platform  at  the 
piano,  strumming  with  one  finger  on  A  and  gazing  in 
terestedly  around  at  the  audience,  while  the  two  violins 
tuned  alongside  her.  Mr.  Matson  was  in  his  place  by  the 
door,  erect,  with  folded  arms,  and  that  expression  of 
adamantine  patience  which  never  entirely  left  his 
countenance  even  in  moments  of  conventional  relaxation 
such  as  this.  Mrs.  Matson  and  Mdlle.  Mantegna  were 
marshalling  the  little  girls  of  the  Junior  Class  for  the 
entrance  of  the  Will-o'-the-wisps  and  the  Night  Breezes 
preluding  that  of  the  Fairies.  The  boys  filed  in,  un 
obtrusively  aligning  themselves  against  the  walls. 

"  What  you  and  Everett  Boardman  having  a  heart-to- 
heart  about  ?  "  some  boy  whispered  in  Sam's  ear. 

"  Nothing/'  said  Sam  gruffly.  "  We  were  just  talk 
ing."  He  was  feeling  a  little  out  of  temper  with  him 
self,  and  visited  his  dissatisfaction  upon  Everett's  head; 
even  the  best  of  us  are  prone  to  dislike  the  person  to  whom 
we  have  told  too  much.  Samuel  said  inwardly  that  he 
never  did  have  any  use  for  Everett  Boardman;  now 
Sandra  was  different ;  she  was  all  right  —  for  a  girl,  that 
is.  She  —  the  Fairies  appeared ! 

They  were  very  pretty  and  graceful,  and  gambolled 
rhythmically  about  the  stage  with  wands  and  chains  of 
flowers,  to  the  complete  gratification  of  their  assembled 
parents;  after  them  a  diminutive  young  lady  in  wav 
ing  multi-coloured  chiffons  "  interpreted  "  Mendelssohn's 
Spring  Song  in  a  series  of  leaps,  swoops  and  circles, 
scattering  blossoms  and  picking  them  up  with  a  somewhat 
fixed  and  intent  face  for  one  so  carelessly  occupied;  then 
the  Priestesses  of  Minerva  had  their  innings,  to  put  it 
profanely;  after  that  a  pair  of  small  boys  with  burnt- 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  11 

corked  faces,  extravagant  collars  and  long-tailed  coats  did 
a  clog-dance  that  brought  forth  the  first  genuine  applause 
of  the  evening  —  alas  for  classic  ideals !  And  then  came : 
"  Fandango :  Miss  Alexandra  Boardman  "  according  to 
the  program. 

Miss  Alexandra  Boardman  entered  boldly,  a  slim  miss 
with  a  red  skirt,  a  ragged  lace  scarf  twisted  about  her 
waist  and  bare  shoulders  and  sleek  black  head,  a  red  rose 
behind  her  ear,  a  gaudy  fan ;  her  otherwise  pallid  cheeks 
had  been  liberally  embellished  with  daubs  of  rouge,  as 
also  her  thin  and  firm  lips.  She  swaggered  to  the  centre 
of  the  stage,  gave  the  audience  a  glance  out  of  her  great 
black  eyes  at  once  indifferent  and  provocative,  stuck  one 
arm  akimbo,  and  with  a  volley  from  the  castanets,  the 
dance  began. 

Our  acquaintance,  Mr.  Samuel  Thatcher,  leaning 
against  the  wall,  with  his  coat  crawling  up  across  his 
shoulders  and  his  generous-sized  feet  being  trodden  upon 
by  various  members  of  the  community,  watched  her,  un 
conscious  of  both  these  discomforts.  He  knew  her  well, 
and  had  never  thought  her  pretty;  in  truth  she  was  not 
noticeably  so.  But  Sam  had  no  time,  as  it  were,  to  take 
account  of  her  looks;  some  other  quality  about  her  flash 
ing  presence,  something  far  more  powerful  than  mere 
beauty,  yet  too  subtle  for  him  to  grasp,  took  the  boy's 
breath,  held  him  gazing  till  his  eyeballs  ached.  He  did 
not  know  that  technically  she  presented  an  astonishly 
faithful  rendering  of  some  Spanish  hussy,  dancing  in  a 
tavern  before  a  ring  of  bull-fighters,  grooms,  beggars,  men- 
about-town,  Phrynes  of  low  degree,  herself  no  better ;  her 
fandango  was  a  feat  of  imagination  no  less  than  an  exhibi 
tion  of  grace  and  accuracy,  but  Sam  did  not  know  that 
He  would  have  recoiled  from  thinking  such  things  about 
any  nice  girl  like  Sandra  Boardman.  He  was  dazed  and 


12  THE  BOAKDMAJST  FAMILY 

fascinated  and  perhaps  even  a  little  frightened;  this 
creature  with  her  movements  light. and  ardent  as  a  flame, 
her  exotic  smile  was  so  uncannily  distinct  from  the  girl 
he  knew.  There  was  a  great  outburst  of  applause  in 
which  he  joined  mechanically.  Sandra  came  back  and 
bowed  and  bowed  again.  It  was  some  time  before  the 
audience,  remembering  its  manners  and  that  the  other 
young  performers  had  not  received  such  spontaneous  ap 
proval,  ceased  clapping.  As  the  noise  subsided,  Sam  heard 
the  fag-end  of  a  murmured  conversation  between  two 
ladies  in  front  of  him. 

".  .  .  too  professional,  really." 

"  Well,  yes  —  a  little,"  the  other  admitted  guardedly. 
"  I  heard  Matson  considered  her  one  of  his  best  pupils." 

"But  he  ought  not  to  have  let  her,  or  encouraged  her 
.  .  .  like  an  actress  .  .  .  it's  not  in  good  taste.  Of 
course,  Mr.  Matson  is  very  nice,  but  after  all,  he's  only 
a  dancing-teacher;  you  can't  tell  what  sort  of  ideas  he 
was  brought  up  with  —  what  kind  of  people  he  comes 
from.  .  .  .  All  very  well  if  she  were  going  on  the  stage, 
but  she's  a  young  lady.  I  shouldn't  think  Mrs.  Board- 
man  herself  would  like  it.  You  want  your  daughter  to 
appear  well  in  a  ball-room  naturally,  but  she  doesn't  need 
to  seem  prepared  for  the  Follies,  or  vaudeville.  ...  So 
much  nicer  if  she  had  just  been  simple  and  sweet  and 
girlish.  This  was  altogether  too  Carmen-y.  .  .  ." 

Sam  made  an  abrupt  movement ;  he  almost  interrupted 
with :  "  But  she  did  —  she  was!  When  she  got  that  en 
core,  she  looked  all  right  —  just  the  way  she  always  does. 
Didn't  you  notice  ?  Why,  that's  what  gets  me !  The  way 
she  changed  back  to  herself  all  at  once.  Do  you  mean 
to  say  you  didn't  see  it,  too  ?  "  But  a  due  regard  for  his 
reputation  for  sanity  restrained  him;  "I'd  look  bright 
butting  in,  wouldn't  I  ?  "  he  reflected  prudently.  The 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  13 

two  heads  wagged  together,  the  conversation  flowed  on 
steadily  under  cover  of  the  music  while  Samuel  was  still 
considering  the  phenomenal  ability  at  masking  and  un 
masking  just  displayed  by  Sandra  Boardman.  All  the 
other  girls  on  the  stage  had  looked  exactly  like  their 
everyday  selves;  they  were  just  dressed  up  differently, 
but  Sandra  —  why,  she  was  two  girls,  two  separate  people ! 
Several  other  dancers  came  and  went  without  getting 
much  attention  from  him;  it  was  not  until  the  lace- 
like  melody  of  BoccheriniV  Minuet  began  to  sound  that 
Sam  gave  up  the  riddle.  He  looked  again  toward  the  stage 
with  reviving  interest,  not  in  Miss  Boardman  personally 
—  not  at  all !  —  but  he  would  have  freely  owned  to  a  vast 
curiosity  as  to  how  she  was  going  to  carry  off  Helen 
Carruthers'  part  in  a  dance  essentially  different. 

She  carried  it  off  with  another  exhibition  of  gifts  akin 
to  those  of  a  chameleon !  She  was  propriety  itself  in  pan 
niers  and  a  fichu.  To  be  sure,  a  slightly  coquettish 
propriety  with  an  artful  little  black  patch  at  the  corner 
of  one  of  her  dark  eyes  which  could  not  help  being  big 
and  brilliant  under  their  slender  straight  brows ;  but  other 
wise  as  sweet  and  simple  as  you  please,  pacing  through 
the  demure  figures  of  the  dance  with  a  sweetness  and 
simplicity  that  must  placate  even  the  critics  in  Sam's 
neighbourhood.  Yet  the  boy  himself  was  puzzled  to  find 
her,  or  fancy  her,  as  foreign  in  this  role  as  in  the  other. 
She  seemed  to  have  put  off  her  own  character  for  that 
of  the  dance,  gracious  and  artificial.  Sam,  comparing 
her  with  the  rest,  decided  in  a  confusion  of  opinions  that 
somehow  left  one  main  opinion  clear,  that  Sandra  was 
not  a  bit  better  than  they  as  far  as  the  mere  dancing  was 
concerned ;  but  there  was  not  one  of  them  who  could  "  do 
it "  as  well  as  she  —  not  even  Everett  who  was  con 
spicuously  perfect.  What  he  meant  by  "  doing  it " 


14  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

Samuel  could  not  have  explained;  but  it  was  no  idle 
phrase.  Sandra  could  "  do  it "  and  the  others  couldn't, 
either  because  they  couldn't  learn,  or  because  it  was  some 
thing  that  could  not  be  taught.  It  occurred  to  him  that 
she  might  not  be  aware  of  this  curious  power  herself ;  she 
might  "  do  it "  without  knowing  it.  He  made  up  his 
mind  to  ask  her. 

The  Exhibition  ended  with  the  Minuet.  Everybody 
got  up;  a  great  shoving-back  and  carrying-out  of  chairs 
began  in  preparation  for  the  general  dancing ;  already  some 
adventurous  couples  were  on  the  floor.  Sam,  who  was 
a  conscientious  youth,  recalling  certain  injunctions,  hunted 
up  his  cousin  Julia  (the  George  Thatchers'  little  girl, 
Samuel  was  one  of  the  Steven  B.  family)  and  took  her 
around  the  room  in  a  two-step  —  two-steps  were  still 
popular  at  this  date.  Julia  was  a  fat  little  chunk,  very 
light  on  her  feet  as  many  fat  people  are,  so  that  dancing 
with  her  was  no  piece  of  self-sacrifice,  if  she  had  not 
been  "such  a  kid."  She  was  in  the  Eighth  Grade  and 
young  Mr.  Thatcher  had  reached  an  age  when  he  pre 
ferred  his  ladies  to  be  mature;  like  Miss  Lorrie  Gilbert, 
for  instance  —  towards  whom  he  was  just  now  rather 
sentimentally  inclined  —  who  was  in  society  before  Sam 
had  emerged  from  kindergarten.  Afterwards  he  found 
another  partner  or  two  among  the  Fairies  and  Priestesses 
who  were  now  at  large  in  the  ball-room;  Everett  Board- 
man  was  circulating  faultlessly  with  one  of  them;  and 
presently  Sam  fell  in  with  Sandra  in  her  minuet  costume, 
under  the  chaperonage  of  a  tall,  thin,  sallow  old  lady 
with  black  eyes,  between  whom  and  Sandra  herself  there 
existed  a  slight,  ominous  resemblance.  Her  dress  was  a 
negligible  matter  to  Samuel,  but  it  may  be  noted  here 
that  she  wore  —  not  without  distinction  —  plain  black 
with  a  plain  black  toque;  and  in  the  fine  jabot  at  her 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  15 

throat  there  was  fastened  a  plaque  of  jet  on  which  was 
dished  up,  so  to  speak,  a  cameo  head  in  profile  garnished 
with  a  wreath  of  split  pearls  —  a  portrait  of  the  late  Alex 
ander  Boardman  whose  widow  she  had  been  for  years.  The 
growing  taste  for  antiquity  must  have  caused  this  brooch 
to  be  rummaged  out  of  some  seldom-visited  drawer,  for  the 
late  Alexander  was  not  actually  very  late.  He  passed 
from  this  sphere  about  eighteen-eighty-five,  and  Mrs. 
Alexander  was  probably  verging  on  seventy  by  this  time; 
but  the  glance  she  cast  on  young  Sam  Thatcher  was  still 
quick  and  bright.  He  and  Sandra  exchanged  salutations 
with  the  breezy  informality  of  their  generation. 
"  Hello !  "  they  challenged  each  other. 

"  Congratulations !  "  said  Sam.  "  You  and  Ev  were 
the  ringers !  " 

She  bobbed  him  a  little  curtsey.  "  Oh,  Mr.  Thatcher, 
how  kind !  Grandma,  it's  Sam.  You  know  him." 

"  Do  I  ?  "  said  the  old  lady  with  humorous  surprise. 
"  Oh,  yes,  to  be  sure !  "  She  nodded  at  him  in  a  manner 
of  friendly  carelessness. 

"  Dance  this,  Sandra  ?  " 

"  All  right." 

They  went  off  together.  Mrs.  Boardman,  preserving 
her  air  of  pleasant  detachment,  went  and  found  a  chair 
for  herself  in  a  corner.  She  was  a  rather  unusual  old 
lady  in  the  fact  that  nobody  ever  waited  on  her ;  she  never 
seemed  to  need  it. 

"  Honestly,  you  were  great,"  said  Sam  as  the  two  young 
people  circled  the  room.  "  I  didn't  know  you  at  first." 

"  Well,  I  don't  know  whether  that's  a  bouquet  or  a  brick 
bat!" 

"  Oh,  of  course  I  knew  you.  I  didn't  mean  I  didn't 
recognize  you.  Only  —  I  don't  see  how  you  make  your 
self  seem  so  different." 


16  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

"  Why,  it's  the  costume  and  the  paint,  of  course,"  said 
Sandra,  openly.  "  I  was  all  made  up.  Black  goo  all 
around  my  eyes,  and  everything,  didn't  you  notice? 
Mademoiselle  put  it  on  for  me.  She's  been  on  the  stage, 
you  know,  so  she  knows  exactly  how  it's  going  to  look 
to  the  audience.  Awfully  queer.  You  first  smear  all 
over  with  cold  cream,  and  then  — " 

Sam  interrupted  unceremoniously.  "  Yes,  I  know. 
That's  not  what  I  mean,  either.  Oh!  (Oh,  that's  all 
right!  Excuse  me!  My  fault!)  It  wasn't  my  fault  all 
the  same,  Sandra.  I  believe  that  fellow  has  something 
against  me;  if  I  don't  keep  dodging  him,  we'll  have  an 
other  cute  little  collision  directly.  What  I  meant  was 
that  you  —  you  weren't  like  yourself  somehow." 

"I  should  hope  noil"  Sandra  declared  with  emphasis. 
"  In  that  fandango  I  had  to  be  common  —  like  a  common 
girl,  you  know." 

Sam  pondered  this  statement  while  his  feet  moved  in 
time,  and  he  automatically  kept  an  eye  out  for  less  skilled 
dancers.  "  Why  ?  "  he  asked  at  last.  "  Nobody  was  mak 
ing  you." 

"  Goodness,  no !  But  I  —  well,  I  read  up  about  it. 
Those  dances  are  only  done  by  the  commonest  kind  of 
people  in  Spain.  The  nice  ones  dance  just  the  way  we 
do.  The  kind  that  dance  fandangoes  and  cachuchas  and 
things  are  awfully  vulgar,  it  said.  I  wanted  to  do  it 

*     7  J.  •>•* 

rig  lit. 

"  Well,  I  don't  believe  most  girls  would  be  as  thorough 
as  all  that,"  said  Sam,  after  another  moment  of  consid 
eration. 

"  You  don't  like  my  doing  it  that  way,  either,  then  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  didn't  say  I  didn't  like  it,"  said  Sam,  feeling 

uncomfortably  that  she  might  really  have  penetrated  to  the 

heart  of  the  matter.     "  I  thought  it  was  great,"  he  pro- 


THE  BOAEDMAX  FAMILY  17 

tested  anxiously.  "  Only  I  couldn't  make  out  why  you 
seemed  so  different.  Was  it  hard  ?  " 

"  No  —  yes  —  I  don't  know,"  Sandra  said.  They 
dropped  out  of  the  dance,  adjourning  to  the  ice-water. 
"  Just  the  dancing  wasn't  hard,"  said  Sandra  between  sips. 
She  began  to  laugh.  "  Ev  and  Mother  didn't  like  it  a 
little  bit!" 

"They  didn't?" 

"  No.  Mother  nearly  had  a  fit  over  that  paint. 
Grandma  just  laughed  and  said  something  about  local 
colour.  Grandma  doesn't  really  care  what  anybody  does; 
she's  always  so  easy." 

"  Didn't  they  know  beforehand  ?  " 

Sandra  shook  her  head  with  a  puzzled  look.  "  They 
didn't  seem  to  take  it  in  somehow,  until  they  saw  me 
up  there  on  the  stage.  Of  course  I'd  practised  —  but  you 
don't  look  the  same  or  feel  the  same,  for  that  matter, 
practising  around  in  any  old  skirt  and  ordinary  slippers. 
I  always  know  when  I'm  doing  it  right,  though,"  she 
added  without  either  complacency  or  false  diffidence. 
"  Mademoiselle  was  too  funny!  She  kissed  me  and  said, 
"  Ca  y  esi!"'  and  clicked  with  her  tongue  that  way 
she  does  as  if  she  was  tasting  something  extra  good. 
That  was  after  the  fandango,  you  know,  when  all  the 
while  I  knew  by  the  look  on  Mother's  face  that  she  was 
ready  to  roast  Mademoiselle  over  a  slow  fire !  She  thought 
it  was  Mademoiselle  had  put  it  into  my  head,  and  it  wasn't 
at  all !  I  made  it  up  all  by  myself." 

"  Well,  look  here,  did  you  do  that  same  way  about 
the  minuet,  too  ?  Eead  up,  and  —  and  all  the  rest  of 
it  ? "  Sam  asked  her,  deeply  interested. 

"  Yes,  but  it  wasn't  nearly  so  hard,"  the  girl  said. 
"  The  minuet's  awfully  —  well  —  flimsy,  you  know.  It 
makes  me  think  of  whipped  cream  and  pink  tissue-paper. 


18  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

and  —  and  bunches  of  flowers  that  are  just  a  little  faded 

—  silly  things  like  that.     There  isn't  anything  to  it  — 
it's  just  pretty.     Hello !  "     And  before  Samuel  could  ex 
press  his  perplexity  over  these  picturesque  statements,  she 
had  gone  off  with  another  partner. 

He  went  meditatively  back  to  the  ball-room ;  they  were 
playing  a  waltz,  slow,  languid  and  seductive  in  character, 
a  new  waltz  that  Sam  did  not  recognize  (it  was  the  Merry 
Widoiv!)  and  he  could  see  Sandra  and  her  partner  gyrat 
ing  deliberately  and  suavely.  The  girl's  slim  feet  seemed 
scarcely  to  move.  Sam  remarked  to  himself  that  she 
sure  could  dance;  and  that  that  was  a  funny  line  of 
talk  she  had  been  handing  him,  but  he  believed  she 
meant  every  word  of  it.  In  this  simple  language  were 
most  of  young  Mr.  Thatcher's  thoughts  framed. 

It  happened  that  a  hurried-looking  gentleman  had  come 
in  a  few  minutes  before,  and  had  first  spoken  to  Mr.  Mat- 
son  in  a  corner,  and  now  was  canvassing  the  audience  and 
dancers  anxiously;  and  Mr.  Matson,  too,  was  going  from 
group  to  group  with  a  perturbed  face.  Little  Julia 
Thatcher  piped  out  in  her  high,  youthful  voice :  "  Why, 
there's  Daddy !  Here  we  are,  Daddy !  "  and  that  drew 
Sam's  attention;  he  saw  his  uncle  coming  towards  him, 
not  seeming  to  heed  Julia,  and  went  to  meet  him,  wonder 
ing. 

"  Oh,  Sam,  here  you  are !  "  said  George  Thatcher.     "  I 

—  I'm  glad  I  found  you."     He  stopped,  hesitated,  and 
then  said  abruptly :     "  You  must  come  home  with  me  right 
away.     Your  father's  sick." 

"Father?  Sick?  Why,  he  was  all  right  at  dinner," 
said  Sam,  staring.  But  in  another  second  he  recovered 
from  his  surprise,  and  said :  "  All  right,  Uncle  George ! 
Wait  till  I  get  my  coat." 

There  was  a  little  hush   among  those  nearest  as  he 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  19 

shouldered  off  to  the  dressing-room.  Mrs.  Thatcher  came 
and  hurried  Julia  away.  But  the  music  and  dancing 
went  on.  Mr.  Matson  came  back  to  Mr.  Thatcher's  side 
and  said  in  a  low  voice :  "  I'm  very  sorry  — "  and  some 
thing  else  about  hoping  it  was  not  so  serious  as  they 
feared. 

"  It  can't  be  any  more  serious,"  said  George  Thatcher 
gloomily.  Sam  came  out  of  the  dressing-room,  button 
ing  his  overcoat,  arid  his  uncle  took  him  by  the  arm  and 
they  went  off  together,  walking  fast. 


CHAPTEK  II 

IN  pioneer  days  when  this  city  was  little  more  than  a 
settlement  of  log  cabins  around  a  log  fort,  one  of  a 
meagre  chain  of  such  settlements  along  the  Ohio  and  Miss 
issippi  rivers  from  Pittsburgh  to  the  Gulf,  there  came  out 
from  New  England  and  added  himself  to  us,  Doctor  Jacob 
Boardman.  Notwithstanding  his  title,  the  doctor's  saddle 
bags  were  stuffed  with  neither  Bibles  nor  bottles  of  physic ; 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  likely  that  they  held  a  considerable 
supply  of  hard  cash.  Jacob  was  no  ministering  angel  to 
either  bodily  or  spiritual  needs,  being,  as  I  have  heard, 
an  extremely  practical  and  hard-headed  gentleman,  near- 
ing  middle-life ;  and  he  had  set  out  a-pioneering  not  from 
any  patriotic  desire  to  extend  our  civilization,  or  grow 
up  with  the  country,  but  simply  because  he  thought  there 
might  be  something  in  it  financially.  He  had  already 
made  a  good  deal  of  money  and  proposed  to  make  more  in 
the  new  territory  —  the  new  State,  to  speak  correctly. 
Nowadays  he  would  have  been  called  a  speculator  or  pro 
moter,  perhaps ;  in  his  own  era  he  was  "  Doc."  Boardman 
whose  occupation  was  trading  round  in  real  estate. 

He  must  have  traded  round,  on  the  whole,  successfully ; 
at  any  rate,  his  activities  in  that  line  are  immortalized 
in  the  name  of  one  locality,  Boardman  Alley,  and  at  the 
abstract-and-guarantee  offices  they  will  tell  you  that  ever 
so  many  titles  go  back  to  Jacob  Boardman.  At  the  most 
prosperous  time  in  his  career,  he  bought  a  large  tract  of 
land  lying  along  one  of  those  shelves  or  benches  where  the 

hills  begin  to  descend  to  the  river;  it  commanded  a  beau- 

20 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  21 

tiful  view,  was  far  enough  from  town  to  be  elegantly 
secluded,  and  near  enough  for  convenience,  and  Doctor 
Boardman  who  rarely  forgot  the  main  chance  or  neglected 
to  aim  at  two  birds  with  one  stone  (whether  he  brought 
them  down  or  not)  intended  to  erect  thereon  a  handsome 
residence  for  himself  and  render  the  place  so  attractive 
that  before  long  all  the  people  in  town  of  taste  and  sufficient 
wealth  would  flock  around  him  eager  to  make  their  homes, 
too,  on  some  of  the  numerous  charming  sites  his  property 
offered. 

He  built  the  house,  a  huge  old  stone  rookery  which  is 
standing  to  this  day,  a  monument  to  J  acob's  one  bad  guess ; 
for  those  expectations  of  his  were  never  realized.  Some 
how  the  tide  of  fashion  in  suburban  building-plots  set 
another  way  for  no  reasonable  reason,  and  ultimately  left 
the  Boardman  homestead  stranded  out  of  reach  of  every 
body  in  an  undesirable  neighbourhood  with  the  slums  actu 
ally  encroaching  upon  it  in  later  years,  after  the  doctor's 
day.  He  died  a  much  poorer  man  —  though  still  very 
well-to-do  —  for  having  made  that  venture. 

Doctor  Boardman  left  the  large  family  popular  in  his 
time,  Willis  Boardman,  Jacob  junior,  Rachel,  Martha, 
William  —  no  outsider  can  remember  all  the  names ; 
Alexander  was  the  youngest,  or  came  along  towards  the 
last  of  them,  anyhow ;  he  was  the  only  one  to  remain  here 
and  live  in  the  house  his  father  built  and  carry  on  the 
Boardman  dynasty  among  us.  The  others  scattered  as 
families  do,  and  founded  new  lines  of  Boardmans  else 
where,  none  of  which,  however,  could  have  arrived  at  the 
local  dignity  and  importance  of  ours.  In  all  probability 
there  is  not  another  Boardman  Alley  on  this  continent ! 

Alexander  Boardman  married  a  Miss  Sarah  Chase  of 
Washington,  and  half  a  dozen  other  places,  for  she  was  a 
daughter  of  Commodore  Chase  of  the  Navy  and  had  lived 


22  THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY 

all  over  the  world.  At  that  date  —  during  the  fifties  —  to 
belong  to  the  Army  or  Navy  or  to  be  an  Episcopalian 
definitely  established  a  person's  rank  in  our  society;  it  is 
true  you  might  possess  none  of  these  qualifications  and 
still  be  well  received,  but  possessing  them,  your  position 
was  assured.  So  doubtless,  when  Alexander  brought  his 
bride  home  to  the  Hillside  Avenue  house,  he  was  consid 
ered  to  have  made  a  match  suitable  for  a  Boardman ;  doubt 
less,  too,  the  new  Mrs.  Alexander's  family  and  friends  ap 
proved,  as  the  young  man  is  said  to  have  been  very  good- 
looking  and  agreeable  and  in  short  promising  in  every  way, 
and  the  Boardman  estate,  even  after  being  divided  among 
so  many,  had  been  large  enough  for  his  share  to  be  a  com 
fortable  nest-egg.  In  all  their  twenty-five  or  thirty  years 
of  married  life  they  had  only  one  child,  a  son ;  and  Alex 
ander  died  in  that  same  old  house  on  Hillside  Avenue,  at 
the  age  of  fifty-seven  or  thereabouts. 

If  there  is  a  certain  brevity  about  these  notes  on  Alex 
ander  Boardman,  it  is  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  this 
writer  knows  scarcely  anything  of  him.  Although  the 
last  ten  or  fifteen  years  of  his  life  a/e  within  the  recol 
lection  of  my  generation,  he  was  not  interesting  enough 
to  us  to  be  known  or  remembered.  Eor  instance,  I  take  it 
for  granted  that  he  had  some  business  or  profession,  for 
with  us  every  man  works,  but  I  do  not  know  what  it  was. 
Indeed,  for  some  while  before  his  death  he  was  very  much 
broken  in  health  and  I  believe  not  quite  right  mentally 
besides,  so  that  he  could  not  have  been  able  to  work  any 
how.  They  used  to  take  him  for  an  outing  about  the 
grounds  in  a  wheel-chair  which  the  negro  man-servant 
pushed,  Mrs.  Boardman  walking  firm  and  erect  alongside ; 
she  was  a  homely  woman  in  the  face  but  of  elegant  figure 
and  carriage. 

Dick  Boardman,  the  son  —  he  was  named  Eichard  Chase 


THE  BOARDMAX  FAMILY  23 

after  the  old  Commodore  —  must  have  been  about  thirty 
at  the  time  of  his  father's  death.  Everybody  said  that  he 
was  an  unusually  fine  sort  of  fellow,  and  —  this  I  do 
remember  clearly  for  it  is  the  kind  of  gossip  that  takes 
hold  of  a  young  person's  imagination  —  that  if  it  had  not 
been  for  his  efforts  during  the  last  few  years,  the  Board- 
man  name  would  have  gone  into  total  eclipse,  as  it  were, 
blotted  out  by  mortgages  and  other  disastrous  obligations. 
The  Hillside  Avenue  property  which  was  rapidly  running 
down  and  had  always  been  a  drain  on  them  instead  of  the 
rich  source  of  revenue  poor  old  Jacob  had  expected  might 
have  been  sold  up  for  delinquent  taxes,  all  sorts  of  dismal 
financial  transactions  might  have  been  aired  in  the  courts, 
if  Richard  had  not  stepped  into  the  breach,  even  managing 
to  save  out  enough  for  his  mother  to  live  on  in  a  plain 
way.  He  took  nothing  himself  —  did  not  need  anything 
for  he  had  a  good  position  with  the  Fenimore  Tile  Com 
pany  and  was  reported  to  be  making  money  fast,  and  to 
be  a  "  solid  man."  There  must  have  been  some  truth  in 
the  talk,  for  a  little  later  he  married  —  one  of  the  Everett 
girls  —  and  they  had  a  comfortable  home  and  lived  well 
and  brought  up  two  children,  performances  which  require 
"  solidity  "  these  days. 

The  first  child,  for  whom  its  grandfather's  name  of 
Alexander  was  in  readiness,  disappointed  them  —  meas 
urably  —  by  turning  out  a  girl.  Not  to  be  balked,  they 
named  her  Alexandra  against  her  grandmother's  protest. 
"  We  may  not  have  another  one,  and  I'm  not  going  to  take 
any  chances,"  Richard  declared  jocularly,  yet  in  earnest. 
"  You  know  you  don't  really  mind,  Mother."  And,  sure 
enough,  Mrs.  Boardman  senior  at  once  withdrew  with  a 
little  gesture  of  her  fine,  slender  hands,  a  little  smile. 
Probably  she  did  not  mind ;  at  any  rate  she  was  an  adept 
in  the  art  of  giving  in  gracefully.  Her  way  of  yielding 


24  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

left  the  victor  with  none  of  that  subtle  dissatisfaction  which 
seems  always  to  accompany  victory.  This  and  some  other 
qualities,  such  as  a  complete  indifference  about  what  there 
was  to  eat,  the  management  of  the  servants,  and  the  cost 
of  running  the  house,  made  her  an  eminently  easy  person 
to  live  with.  "  Oh,  we  never  have  a  word.  We'd  both 
think  words  vulgar,  anyway.  But  it's  not  that;  it's  just 
that  Mother  thinks  just  the  same  way  I  do  about  every 
thing,  so  we  have  nothing  to  disagree  over !  "  Mrs.  Richard 
Boardman  would  say.  "  I  think  those  mother-in-law  jokes 
in  the  funny  papers  are  horrid.  Nice  people  don't  behave 
that  way." 

The  younger  Mrs.  Boardman  was  rather  short,  with  rich 
black  hair,  and  brows  and  lashes,  clear  light  hazel  eyes, 
a  rosy  complexion,  dimples,  beautiful  teeth,  and  a  figure 
of  that  suave  roundnes  in  youth  which  becomes,  in  later 
years,  almost  too  round  —  an  exceedingly  pretty  woman, 
in  fine.  She  was  Lucy  Everett  and  all  of  the  Everetts 
were  good-looking.  The  next  arrival  to  the  Boardman 
couple  gratified  them  not  only  by  being  a  boy  —  whom 
they  christened  with  his  mother's  maiden  name  —  but  by 
being  an  unusually  handsome  one;  there  used  to  be  a 
laughing  argument  between  the  parents  as  to  the  side  from 
which  he  derived  this  superior  physical  endowment. 
Eichard  would  hold  out  vigorously  for  the  paternal  blood, 
pointing  to  the  life-size  oil  portrait  of  Alexander  over  the 
dining-room  mantelpiece,  to  the  other  life-size  oil  portrait 
of  Jacob  over  the  sideboard,  to  the  silhouettes,  the  daguer 
reotypes,  the  yellowing  photographs  of  dozens  of  related 
Boardmans  everywhere  in  the  house,  in  support  of  his 
claim ;  Mrs.  Richard,  for  her  part,  could  not  bring  forward 
quite  so  imposing  a  lot  of  ancestors,  but  on  the  other  hand, 
she  had  a  perfect  arsenal  of  contemporaries,  stunning- 
looking  sisters,  brothers  and  masculine  cousins  who  might 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  25 

have  posed  for  Romeos.  If  the  baby  had  the  Boardman 
nose,  he  had  the  Everett  eyes,  the  hands  of  this  one,  the 
feet  of  that  one  —  so  with  perennial  relish,  the  simple  fun 
went  on.  Nobody  ever  quarrelled  jokingly  over  the  rival 
claims  of  the  Boardmans  and  Everetts  in  Alexandra's  case ; 
Alexandra,  sad  to  relate,  was  not  pretty. 

They  did  not  live  in  the  Hillside  Avenue  house,  in  spite 
of  sentiment  and  associations.  Richard's  practical  com 
mon-sense  declared  against  it,  and  even  Mrs.  Alexander, 
though  she  had  passed  more  than  half  her  life  there,  as 
a  bride,  a  mother,  a  widow,  approved  of  the  change,  or 
at  least  accepted  it  with  her  customary  agreeable  reticence ; 
to  refrain  from  any  sort  of  self-indulgence  apparently  cost 
her  nothing.  After  its  escape  from  the  sheriff's  clutches, 
and  after  an  interval  when  it  stood  vacant  with  its  great 
old  windows  boarded  up,  with  broken  slates  and  chimney 
pots  rattling  down  in  the  high  winds,  with  grass  and  weeds 
running  wild  together  in  the  yard,  Richard  succeeded 
in  leasing  it  to  a  man  named  Thatcher  who  had  a 
dairy-farm  back  in  the  country  somewhere.  Thatcher 
had  made  some  money  dairy-farming  and  now,  it 
appeared,  wanted  to'  move  his  large  family  —  he  had 
ten  or  a  dozen  children,  it  was  reported !  —  into 
town  so  as  to  give  them  an  education  and  social  advantages. 
"  I  suppose  our  old  place  must  be  the  only  one  he  can 
find  that's  big  enough  and  at  the  same  time  cheap  enough," 
Richard  Boardman  said  in  private.  "  We're  lucky  to  get 
respectable  people  in  there."  By  which  it  will  be  seen  how 
much  for  the  worse  that  neighbourhood  had  altered.  How 
ever,  the  Thatchers  moved  in  and  dwelt  with  the  old  marble 
mantels  and  high  ceilings,  and  splendid  curving  flights  of 
stairs;  and  sat  in  their  shirtsleeves  on  the  old  columned 
porches,  and  were  not  annoyed,  let  us  hope,  by  the  near 
proximity  of  the  Little  Miami  stockyards  on  one  side,  and 


26  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

the  saloons  and  coloured  settlements  on  the  other.  The 
Boardmans,  meanwhile,  found  a  smaller  modern  house  oil 
the  North  Hill,  and  it  was  there  that  Kichard  brought  his 
wife  and  there  that  the  two  children  were  born. 

There  they  grew  up,  also,  if  not  under  the  ancestral 
roof-tree,  at  any  rate  surrounded  by  the  ancestral  belong 
ings  which  of  themselves  amply  sustained  the  patrician 
legend.  Massive  mahogany  pieces,  old  steel  engravings, 
Dr.  Boardman's  certificate  of  membership  in  the  Order 
of  Cincinnatus  engrossed  on  parchment  and  framed  and 
hanging  up  in  the  hall,  the  solid  silver  service  presented 
to  Commodore  Chase  on  his  retirement  by  the  officers  and 
seamen  of  the  Susquehanna,  those  portraits  already  alluded 
to,  Jacob  with  his  high  collar  and  Napoleonic  forelock, 
Alexander  with  his  low  collar  and  spreading  whiskers,  Mrs. 
Alexander,  a  pensive  grande  dame  in  black  velvet  showing 
her  graceful  arms  and  shoulders,  with  a  lace  scarf  thrown 
over  her  head  —  this  is  only  to  name  a  few  of  the  evi 
dences  ef  ancient  distinction  to  be  noticed  in  the  Board- 
man  residence.  They  came  in  for  a  good  deal  of  admiring 
and  interested  comment  from  visitors  and  outsiders;  the 
family  themselves  were  too  accustomed  to  them  to  think 
much  about  them,  or  at  any  rate  to  talk  much;  possibly 
too  the  Boardman  tradition  enjoined  certain  manners, 
certain  attitudes  of  mind.  In  later  years  the  only  thrash 
ing  and  the  only  severe  words  Everett  Boardman  could 
remember  ever  to  have  received  from  his  father  were 
incurred  by  some  boyish  boasting  about  the  family  inher 
itances  which  the  elder  Boardman  happened  to  overhear. 
"  I'm  a  Boardman !  "  said  Everett  pompously  to  the  neigh 
bourhood  small  fry,  congregated  on  the  front  walk  before 
setting  out  for  Sunday-school.  "  I'm  a  Boardman !  We 
don't  have  anybody  but  gentlemen  in  my  family  —  " 

And  here  Kichard  Boardman,  who  was  reading  the  Sun- 


THE  BOARDMA:NT  FAMILY  27 

day  morning  paper  on  the  porch,  laid  it  aside  and  rose 
up  with  a  stern  and  chilling  countenance;  and  taking 
Master  Everett  by  the  shoulder  marched  him  into  the 
house  and  upstairs.  He  gave  the  boy  a  grave  lecture  before 
applying  the  weapon  of  correction.  u  I  am  ashamed  to 
find  out  that  my  son  goes  around  blowing  and  bragging 
about  his  name  and  his  family  and  his  being  a  gentleman ; 
I'm  ashamed  of  him  for  doing  it,  and  I'm  more  ashamed 
of  him  for  thinking  that  way,"  said  Richard.  "  About  the 
cheapest  thing  a  man  can  do  is  to  bully  a  servant,  and 
the  next  cheapest  and  silliest  is  to  tell  people  he's  a  gentle 
man.  I  mean  for  you  to  remember  this,  Everett.  Take 
off  your  coat,  sir !  "  Let  us  not  proceed  any  farther  with 
this  painful,  this  classic  scene.  Everett  did  remember,  it 
is  to  be  hoped  profitably;  he  would  sometimes  recall  the 
occasion  with  a  laugh.  But  Eichard  Boardman,  who  used 
often  as  he  grew  older  to  review  with  tender  amusement 
his  children's  peccadilloes  and  their  punishments,  never 
referred  to  this  particular  incident ;  he  had  been  in  earnest 
when  saying  that  he  was  ashamed. 

Except  that  one  time,  Everett,  to  do  him  justice,  scarcely 
needed  discipline.  He  grew  up  a  nice  boy,  amiable,  truth 
ful,  and  of  good  spirit ;  he  stood  well  enough  in  his  classes 
—  though  not  destined  to  set  the  Ohio  River  on  fire,  the 
teachers  said  to  one  another  —  and  was  always  pre-emi 
nently  good-looking,  even  at  the  coltish  period  of  growth. 
His  mother  was  very  proud  of  him,  though,  being  a  sen 
sible  woman,  she  heroically  tried  her  best  not  to  show  it. 
For  that  matter,  little  Mrs.  Richard  was  innocently  proud 
and  happy  about  a  great  many  things  —  of  herself,  her 
enduring  prettiness,  her  clothes,  her  house,  her  husband 
who  was  such  a  prominent  man,  so  successful,  universally 
so  liked  and  respected,  who  gave  her  everything  and  let 
her  do  everything  she  wanted,  of  her  boy,  of  her  girl,  even 


28  THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY 

of  her  association  with  her  mother-in-law  which,  as  has 
been  shown,  was  amicable  to  a  degree  rarely  witnessed. 

The  daughter  of  the  house  of  Boardman  offered,  per 
haps,  not  quite  so  much  to  be  proud  of  as  some  of  those 
other  people  and  circumstances  over  which  Mrs.  Board 
man  junior  was  so  set  up.  Sandra  grew  from  an  odd, 
Pierrot-faced  baby  who  had  a  disturbing  fashion  of  crying 
when  she  heard  sad  music  or  hymns,  while  she  would 
crow  and  chuckle  at  "  Dixie  "  or  the  latest  rag-time  melody 
on  a  hand-organ,  into  an  equally  odd  little  girl  with  a 
clear  and  chalky-white  complexion,  with  dead  black  hair 
and  eyes,  and  with  arms,  legs  and  whole  body  so  slender 
as  to  give  her  a  misleading  appearance  of  frail  health. 
In  reality  the  youngster  hardly  ever  knew  a  sick  day ;  her 
delicately  wiry  frame  had  been  dowered  with  strength  and 
soundness  by  some  pioneer  forebear  —  or  so  the  family 
thought.  She  had  more  of  a  temper  than  Everett;  the 
children  squabbled  and  made  up  as  children  will,  honours 
being  about  easy  as  to  who  provoked  the  quarrels  and  who 
came  off  victor;  neither  one  sulked  or  domineered,  those 
difficult  traits  not  being  in  their  characters,  happily.  Like 
her  brother  Sandra  got  through  her  lessons  creditably,  but 
without  displaying  an  especial  talent  for  anything.  Both 
of  them  played  the  piano  by  ear,  and  wore  out  the  patience 
of  successive  music-teachers  by  that  laxity  in  practice  and 
study  which  this  sort  of  amateur  invariably  exhibits. 

"  You  needn't  talk !  "  Richard  would  say,  laughing,  to 
his  mother  when  she  mildly  urged  the  children  to  their 
scales  and  finger-exercises.  "  They  get  that  straight  from 
you.  I've  heard  you  say  over  and  over  again  that  when 
you  were  a  girl  nobody  could  make  you  work  over  your 
music.  It  came  too  easy  without  work.  You  can't  say 
a  word !  " 

"  Well,  and  see  where  my  laziness  landed  me !  "  retorted 


THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY  29 

Mrs.  Alexander.  "  I'm  a  horrible  example.  I  might 
have  been  a  good  musician,  but  I  never  got  anywhere  or 
did  anything  except  play  over  in  a  slouchy  way  whatever  I 
heard  at  concerts  and  places.  To  be  sure,  they  didn't  know 
how  to  teach  so  well  in  those  days  as  they  do  now." 

"  You  didn't  play  slouchily  either,"  cried  out  Richard. 
"  You  played  all  right.  Don't  you  remember  how  I  loved 
to  have  you  play  me  to  sleep  when  I  was  a  little  fellow? 
Father  would  go  out  somewhere,  and  you  used  to  tuck  me 
up  in  bed  and  then  go  down  into  our  old  drawing-room 
and  play  —  you  used  to  play  '  The  Last  Rose  of  Summer  ' 
with  variations  —  I  believe  you  made  'em  up  as  you  went 
along  —  " 

Everett  and  Sandra  exploded  with  hilarious  scorn.  The 
Last  Rose  of  Summer !  That  fossil  tune !  (rood-night ! 

"  It  was  very  pretty,"  Richard  asserted  stoutly.  "  And 
you  played  it  beautifully,  Mother." 

"  Seems  Grandpa  couldn't  stand  it,"  said  Everett,  grin 
ning.  "  He  went  out !  " 

"  But  aren't  we  getting  a  long  way  off  from  the  question 
of  you  two  practising?"  inquired  Mrs.  Boardman  and 
smiled,  too,  not  in  the  least  hurt  by  their  ruthless  amuse 
ment,  and  turning  the  talk  from  herself  as  she  somehow 
always  contrived  to  do  unobtrusively.  But  Sandra,  look 
ing  at  her,  sobered  suddenly. 

"  I'll  go  right  away  and  play  my  scales  for  an  hour,"  she 
announced,  and  jumped  up  and  ran  and  kissed  her  grand 
mother  impulsively,  before  galloping  downstairs  to  the 
piano.  She  once  confided  to  Everett  that  sometimes  there 
was  something  in  the  old  lady's  face  —  "  that  makes  me 
want  to  do  something  for  her,"  said  the  girl,  not  too  clearly. 

"  Do  something?     Do  what?  "  Everett  asked,  puzzled. 

But  Sandra  could  not  explain.  "  I  don't  know.  Even 
when  she's  laughing  and  talking,  it  comes.  I  don't  believe 


30  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

she  knows  it's  there  herself  —  I  think  she'd  stop  it  if  she 
knew  —  I  think  she's  that  kind  of  a  person.  She  wouldn't 
want  me  to  he  sorry  for  her.  Anyhow  I'm  not  sorry  — 
not  exactly  —  there's  nothing  for  me  to  feel  sorry  about 
—  unless  it  might  be  Grandpa  being  dead,  and  of  course 
I  can't  talk  to  her  about  that.  I  suppose  that's  what  she's 
thinking  of  when  that  look  comes.  I  always  feel  as  if  I 
simply  wanted  to  help  her  —  " 

"  Ho !  I  never  saw  her  look  like  that,"  said  Everett 
in  some  contempt  of  feminine  fancies.  Very  likely  he 
was  right.  Sandra  was  a  rather  imaginative  girl,  and 
Mrs.  Alexander's  calm  face,  unlined  even  at  her  age,  gave 
no  sign  to  the  ordinary  observer  of  hidden  fires  or  dis 
tresses  past  or  present.  In  any  case,  Sandra  divined  that 
her  grandmother  was  not  of  the  temperament  to  demand 
sympathy ;  she  was  not  at  all  sorry  for  herself,  and  did  not 
ask  any  one  else  to  be.  Sandra  once  or  twice  thought  — 
with  a  scared  and  apologetic  feeling  —  that  the  older  Mrs. 
Boardman  would  probably  not  care  particularly  even  for 
comfort  offered  from  On  High,  though  she  would  accept 
it  with  the  most  well-bred  manner  in  the  world!  Mrs. 
Alexander  never  went  to  church  —  though  Sandra  saw  her 
reading  the  Bible  once  in  a  while  —  and  never  discussed 
spiritual  matters. 

Richard  himself  was  a  rather  tepid  churchman,  though 
he  gave  liberally,  irrespective  of  creeds ;  but  Mrs.  Richard 
more  than  made  up  for  the  two  of  them  by  the  energy 
of  her  religious  observances.  Not  that  she  was  devout; 
she  believed  in  Something  hazy,  remote,  and  —  to  speak 
plainly  —  not  very  agreeable  owing  to  an  association  with 
that  other  hazy,  remote  and  essentially  disagreeable  ab 
straction,  Death.  But  if  her  beliefs  were  thus  unstable, 
Mrs.  Richard's  convictions,  on  the  other  hand,  were  as 
solid  as  a  rock.  That  only  "  nice  "  people  went  to  All 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  31 

Saints',  that  therefore  it  was  her  imperative  duty  as  a 
mother  to  see  that  her  children  went  there,  in  order  that 
they  might  mingle  only  with  "  nice  "  children,  and  see 
and  hear  and  be  taught  only  things  proper  to  and  accepted 
by  the  "  nice  "  class  —  these  were  opinions  for  which  she 
would  have  gone  to  the  stake.  She  privately  thought  that 
all  the  Protestant  sects  outside  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
were  "  common" ;  she  did  not  know  anybody  in  those  con 
gregations.  Very  good,  kind  people,  of  course;  Mr. 
Boardman  knew  a  great  many  of  them  in  business,  but 
she  never  met  them  anywhere. 

She  entertained  the  same  prejudice  against  the  free 
schools  which  our  well-meaning  communities  provide  for 
the  education  of  our  youth.  Alas,  they  too  were  "  com 
mon,"  according  to  Mrs.  Richard  Boardman!  Fortu 
nately  her  husband's  means  afforded  the  best  private  school 
for  their  girl  —  at  least  to  the  best  private  school  Sandra 
went,  whether  her  father  could  afford  it  or  not.  His  wife 
had  a  hundred  arguments  to  justify  the  extravagance. 
Boys  being  less  susceptible  to  contamination  from  the 
"  common "  element,  as  we  may  fairly  infer,  Everett 
went  hardily  to  the  public  school  and  high  school  there 
after  without  visibly  deteriorating,  we  are  bound  to  admit, 
in  manners  or  morals. 

When  all  is  said,  Mrs.  Richard's  small  snobbery  — 
if  it  was  snobbery  —  was  harmless;  she  never  hurt  any 
body's  feelings  with  it;  she  had  been  herself  too  well 
brought  up,  and  was  too  kind  and  gentle  by  nature.  The 
same  might  be  said  of  the  children ;  the  atmospher?  of  their 
home  would  have  made  them  "  nice,"  whatever  outside 
conditions  happened  to  be.  Still  the  mother  had  her  mo 
ments  of  anxiety.  She  would  sometimes  remark  with 
perplexity  —  for  the  thing  seemed  to  reverse  parents'  usual 
experience  —  that  she  never  worried  half  so  much  over 


32  THE  BOARDMAlSr  FAMILY 

Everett,  as  over  Alexandra.  Everett's  friends  were  all 
"  nice "  boys,  sons  of  friends  of  her  own,  or  people  who 
could  be  placed  as  having  entirely  "  nice "  antecedents. 
But  she  never  could  tell  whom  Sandra  might  pick  up ! 

"  Look  at  that  boy  she  is  dancing  with  now !  "  she  com 
plained  under  her  breath  to  another  mother.  "  Do  you 
know  who  he  is?  No?  Well,  I  don't  either.  I  never 
saw  him  before  in  my  life.  Mr.  Matson  told  me  when  I 
let  Sandra  join  this  class  that  there  wouldn't  be  anybody 
but  nice  children  in  it  —  he  gave  me  the  names,  and  I 
thought  I  knew  them  all.  Who  do  you  suppose  he  is  ?  " 

"  Some  new  people,  probably.  There's  somebody  new 
coming  up  all  the  time,"  said  the  friend,  who  was  of  a 
more  philosophical  turn  of  mind.  "  It  doesn't  make  much 
difference  when  they  are  as  young  as  this.  They  can 
always  drop  them  when  they  get  a  little  older,"  she  added 
—  and  if  the  last  statements  appear  devoid  of  sense  or 
meaning,  let  the  reader  apply  to  some  mother  in  Mrs. 
Boardman's  position.  She  will  understand. 

Mrs.  Eichard,  however,  called  the  child  —  Sandra  was 
about  eleven  years  old  at  this  time  —  to  her,  when  the 
dance  was  finished,  and  inquired  who  her  late  partner 
was. 

"  Oh,  him !  "  said  Sandra  as  ungrammatically  as  if  she 
had  not  been  a  "  nice "  little  girl  at  all.  "  Why,  his 
name's  Sam  Thatcher.  Hasn't  he  got  the  reddest  hair, 
though  ?  " 

He  had;  he  also  had  a  square,  stocky  figure,  abundant 
freckles,  and  a  wide,  wholesome  grin.  Mrs.  Boardman 
examined  him  without  favour.  "  Thatcher  ?  I  don't 
know  his  mother.  I  never  heard  of  any  Mrs.  Thatcher. 
You  see !  It's  just  as  I  was  telling  you,"  she  said  to  the 
other  lady  with  a  despairing  shrug. 

"  He  hasn't  got  any  mother,"  said  Sandra.     "  He  hasn't 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  33 

had  any  since  he  was  a  weenty  little  baby.  He  calls  his 
big  sister  Ma.  Ma  Susie.  Isn't  that  funny  ?  That's  her 
over  there." 

"  She,  dear,  don't  say  her.  Mercy  on  us,  who  do  you 
suppose  these  people  are?"  Mrs.  Boardman  ejaculated 
under  her  breath  in  a  tragic  aside  to  her  neighbour.  She 
followed  the  child's  gesture  and  saw  a  tall  young  woman, 
twenty-odd  years  of  age,  as  square  of  contour,  stocky  and 
red-headed  as  Master  Samuel  himself,  sitting  patiently 
on  one  of  the  chairs  at  the  side  of  the  room,  watching  the 
dancers;  she  was  not  well  dressed,  and  had  on  a  prepos 
terous  hat  all  feathers  and  gewgaws  —  "  for  all  the  world 
like  a  servant-girl  on  her  Sunday  out !  "  Mrs  Kichard 
thought. 

"  I  know  a  Mrs.  George  Thatcher,"  said  the  friend  un 
expectedly.  "  They've  just  begun  coming  to  All  Saints'. 
She's  very  interested  in  the  Girls'  Friendly." 

"  Oh !  "  said  Mrs.  Boardman,  taken  aback.  "  But  it 
can't  be  the  same  family,"  she  added  in  polite  incredulity. 

"  No.  This  Mrs.  Thatcher  that  I  know  is  too  young  to 
be  that  girl's  mother  anyhow.  She's  just  a  young  married 
woman  —  her  children  are  little  things." 

"  Sam  goes  to  school  with  Ev,"  said  Sandra,  feeling 
somehow  on  the  defensive.  "  Ev  knows  him." 

"  Oh,  a  boy  can  know  anybody,"  her  mother  said  a  little 
impatiently ;  "  but  I've  told  you  often,  Sandra  — "  and  no 
doubt  there  would  have  followed  one  of  those  sermons  on 
social  distinctions  to  which  Sandra  was  accustomed,  if 
Miss  Hoffman  had  not  most  opportunely  struck  up  another 
dance. 

Everett,  on  being  interrogated  later  said :  Yeah.  Sure. 
He  knew  a  boy  named  Thatcher,  only  they  didn't  call  him 
Sam,  they  called  him  Mugsy.  Yeah,  his  name  was  Sam 
all  right,  but  the  fellows  always  called  him  Mugsy.  He 


34  THE  BOAKDMAX  FAMILY 

could  wiggle  his  ears.  He  had  a  dog  that  would  eat 
sauerkraut  —  aw,  it  would,  too,  he'd  seen  it.  Sometimes 
the  fellows  would  buy  a  cent's  worth  of  the  old  sauer 
kraut  woman  that  came  around,  and  give  it  to  the  dog  just 
to  see  him  eat  —  he'd  lop  it  all  down,  and  wag  around 
asking  for  more!  Some  day  they  were  all  going  out  to 
Mugsy's  father's  farm,  and  shoot  rabbits.  Mugsy  could 
shoot;  he  had  the  dandiest  gun.  Say,  Dad,  couldn't  he 
(Everett)  have  a  gun  —  ? 

"  Did  you  say  Thatcher  ?  "  said  Boardman  senior,  com 
ing  out  of  a  brown  study.  "  Why,  that  must  be  the  same 
Thatchers  that  have  our  old  place !  I  think  this  George 
Thatcher  that  is  with  the  Gale  and  Bemis  Machine-Tool 
people  is  one  of  them,  or  some  relation.  Has  this  friend 
of  yours  got  a  whole  lot  of  brothers  and  sisters,  Everett? 
All  ages,  some  of  them  nearly  grown-up?  Oh,  yes,  the 
older  ones  must  be  quite  grown-up  by  this  time.  I  believe 
it's  the  same  people." 


CHAPTER  III 

SAM  THATCHER'S  forefathers  did  not  come  to  this 
country  in  the  beginning  years  of  its  settlement,  and 
establish  a  dynasty  —  or,  if  they  did,  local  history  has 
taken  no  note  of  them.  The  first  Thatcher  of  whom  any 
one  here  ever  heard  was  Steven  B.,  the  same  one  who,  not 
much  more  than  thirty  years  ago,  moved  in  from  his 
dairy-farm  and  leased  the  old  Boardman  house.  Sam 
himself  could  not  remember  that  event;  he  was  a  baby 
at  the  time,  the  latest  comer  of  all  the  brood,  who  ranged 
in  ages  from  fifteen-year-old  Susie  down  to  his  own  scant 
six  months,  and  so  the  gaunt  barn  of  a  house  was  the 
first  home  he  knew. 

His  mother  did  not  regard  it  as  a  barn,  nor  did  it  ever 
occur  to  her  that  the  neighbours  might  be  objectionable. 
Neighbours  of  almost  any  sort  were  only  too  welcome  to 
her,  who  had  always  lived  at  least  three  miles  from  every 
body  and  everywhere.  All  her  life  she  had  yearned  for 
town,  for  gas,  sidewalks,  fire-engines,  policemen,  noise,  dis 
traction,  amusement  —  if  churches  and  schools  figured  in 
the  list,  it  was  as  incidentals;  and  now  that  her  dreams 
and  desires  were  to  be  realized,  she  was  too  happily  dazzled 
to  consider  details.  Moreover,  the  experience  of  spending 
money  freely  on  the  things  dear  to  every  woman's  heart 
such  as  furnishings  and  decorations,  was  hers  for  the  first 
time.  The  Hillside  Avenue  house  afforded  an  ample 
background,  yet  scarcely  ample  enough,  for  the  clutter  of 
Brussels  carpets,  Nottingham  lace  curtains  and  chenille 
portieres,  the  department-store  etchings,  the  bastard  Wedg- 

35 


36  THE  BOAHDMAJST  FAMILY 

wood  and  Sevres  and  majolica  bric-a-brac  with  which  Mrs. 
Thatcher's  simple  taste  crowded  it.  Finished,  it  was  a 
gorgeous  spectacle;  there  is  something  saddening  in  the 
knowledge  that  she  had  so  short  a  while  to  enjoy  it.  She 
died  very  suddenly  of  pneumonia  the  following  winter 
before  little  Sam  had  learned  to  walk. 

So  there  was  poor  Steven  Thatcher  with  the  raft  of 
children  on  his  hands,  and  the  house  forlorn  in  spite  of 
all  its  magnificence.  The  widower,  however,  was  a  prac 
tical  man;  he  had  graduated,  so  to  speak,  from  dairying 
into  the  produce  and  commission  business  in  which  his 
capital  was  now  invested,  and  the  new  duties  left  him  not 
much  time  for  sentiment.  He  imported  a  distant  cousin 
of  his  wife's,  Mattie  Phillips,  from  some  little  town  up 
in  Indiana,  to  keep  the  house,  and  presently  everything 
was  going  on  as  before.  That  is,  everything  went  on  as 
before  from  Steven's  point  of  view,  and  from  that  of  all 
of  the  children  excepting  his  oldest  daughter.  Susie  had 
protested  violently  against  the  arrangement;  she  thought 
she  herself  was  old  enough  and  capable  enough  to  manage 
the  household,  resented  bitterly  the  obligation  of  obedience 
to  this  intruder,  and  tormented  herself  with  jealous  fore 
bodings  that  before  long  Mattie  Phillips  would  be  occupy 
ing  her  mother's  place  in  earnest.  Not  the  least  of  her 
grievances  was  that  she  could  not  reasonably  complain  of 
Mattie's  administration;  Susie  actually  found  it  in  her 
heart  to  dislike  the  other  for  doing  her  duty  well,  for 
making  them  all  comfortable,  and  getting  along  cheerfully, 
patiently  and  good-naturedly  with  everybody!  It  was 
all  "  put  on  "  in  the  same  fell  purpose  according  to  Susie. 
She  kept  her  discontent  to  herself,  however,  pride  or  pru 
dence  withholding  her  from  confiding  in  any  one,  even  in 
the  other  children,  except  baby  Sam ;  he  was  too  young 
to  understand  or  betray  her,  and  indeed  used  to  bawl 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  37 

dismally  and  squirm  away  whenever  his  sister  expounded 
her  woes,  or  wept  angrily  over  them  and  him  in  private. 

Susie  might  have  rested  easy.  Miss  Phillips  was  a 
trim,  wide-awake,  good-looking  young  woman  with  a  fair 
education,  considerable  taste  in  dress,  and  judgment  about 
money  matters,  and  a  surprising  discernment  in  worldly 
affairs  and  the  business  of  making  the  most  of  oneself  and 
one's  chances.  If  she  had  in  the  beginning  any  idea  of 
settling  herself  as  the  second  Mrs.  Steven  Thatcher,  she 
speedily  abandoned  it  in  favour  of  having  a  house  of 
her  own  and  children  of  her  own.  Dead  people's  shoes 
are  seldom  a  good  fit;  and  besides,  to  tell  the  truth,  poor 
Mrs.  Steven's  were  as  brogans,  carpet-slippers,  hob-nailed 
boots,  compared  to  the  sort  of  foot-gear  Mattie  meant  to 
have.  In  a  single  year  of  town,  she  saw  more  and  learned 
more  than  the  late  Mrs.  Thatcher,  go«d  plain  woman  that 
she  was,  would  have  seen  and  learned  in  her  whole  life. 
The  drawbacks  to  Hillside  Avenue  as  a  place  of  residence 
would  never  have  escaped  Mattie ;  even  at  the  very  outset 
before  she  had  acquired  the  sophistication  and  begun  to 
entertain  the  social  ambitions  of  succeeding  years,  she 
had  a  sharp  inkling  that  the  old  Boardman  house  was  not 
a  place  where  "  anybody  "  would  choose  to  live ;  she  very 
soon  found  out  who  "  anybody  "  was,  and  that  she  herself 
was  "  nobody."  That  last  was  a  condition  Miss  Phillips 
determined  some  day  to  remedy.  And  as  time  went  on 
she  erected  certain  other  standards  as  definite  and  un 
shakable  as  if  she  had  got  them  by  inheritance  —  like 
Mrs.  Richard  Boardman.  In  fact  they  strikingly  resem 
bled  some  of  Mrs.  Boardman's,  on  the  surface,  at  any 
rate;  Mattie  expressed  the  same  opinions  about  being 
"  nice  "  and  being  "common";  she  had  the  jargon  per 
fectly. 

But  by  that  time  she  had  become  Mrs.  George  Thatcher. 


38  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

George  was  a  younger  brother  of  Steven's  whom  the  latter 
had  taken  into  business.  He  lived  with  them  for  a  while 
on  Hillside  Avenue.  Mattie  Phillips  was  then  about 
twenty-eight  and  had  been  keeping  house  for  Steven  and 
the  children  some  five  years;  perhaps  she  concluded  that 
she  had  had  enough  of  it,  or  perhaps  with  that  unerring 
eye  to  the  main  chance  that  has  been  mentioned,  perceived 
that  something  might  be  made  out  of  George,  who  wras  a 
promising  young  fellow  with  a  good  head  for  business. 
She  liked  him  well  enough,  and  after  due  hesitation  (trust 
Mattie  not  to  omit  any  of  the  formulas!)  accepted  him; 
and  they  were  married  and  went  to  live  in  a  little  plain 
cottage  on  one  of  the  side  streets  leading  off  from  Adams 
Road.  George  was  all  for  a  freshly-opened  sub-divi 
sion  farther  out  where  the  new  brick  houses  stood  in 
rows  close  as  peas  in  a  pod  and  as  nearly  alike,  every  one 
with  a  cement  walk  and  all  the  modern  conveniences,  in 
cluding  the  trolley-cars  thundering  by  momentarily.  He 
could  not  understand  his  wife's  preference  for  this  rather 
shabby  old  dwelling  —  it  actually  had  been  a  tenant-house 
on  the  Henry  D.  Meigs  property  at  one  time  —  tucked 
into  an  out-of-the-way  corner  among  the  big  North  Hill 
estates  whose  aloof  and  lofty  neighbourhood  made  it  seem 
shabbier  still.  But  Mrs.  George  stood  firm.  It  was 
genius ! 

Thenceforward  the  social  ascent  of  the  George  Thatchers 
was  sure  and  steady.  For  one  thing,  George  made  plenty 
of  money  —  and  plenty  of  money,  sordid  as  it  seems,  must 
be  recognized  as  essential  to  success  in  this  sort  of  climb 
ing.  The  astute  Mrs.  George  spent  it,  you  may  be  sure, 
where  it  would  make  the  best  and  most  effective  showing. 
She  had  the  proper  clothes,  furnishings,  servants ;  she  made 
George  join  the  right  clubs,  and  dragged  him  diligently 
to  the  right  church,  the  right  theatre,  the  right  summer- 


THE  BOARDMAX  FAMILY  39 

resort ;  she  sent  the  children  to  the  right  schools,  and  not 
Mrs.  Boardman  herself  could  have  been  more  careful  to 
see  that  they  made  the  right  friends.  At  the  end  of  ten 
years  Mrs.  George  Thatcher  had  worked  her  way,  with  no 
loss  of  dignity  or  self-respect,  into  the  circle  from  which 
nobodies  and  even  anybodies  are  excluded ;  she  was  one 
of  the  somebodies.  And  by  the  end  of  another  ten  — 
though  this  is  looking  ahead  —  she  was  in  a  fair  way  to 
become  the  somebody.  So  much  for  adaptability  and  intel 
ligence  —  or  at  least  cleverness  —  and  perseverance  1 

In  the  meanwhile,  where  were  the  other  Thatchers? 
Steven  made  money,  too ;  he  was  a  man  of  force,  a  sterling 
character ;  but  one  may  easily  guess  that  even  with  money, 
no  member  of  that  family  could  achieve  such  heights  as 
Mattie.  None  of  them  had  the  gifts,  or  indeed  the  in 
clination.  Mattie  herself,  who  was  generous  withal,  and 
had  ambition  to  spare,  could  do  nothing  with  or  for  them ; 
she  tried  elevating  first  Susie,  then  Delia,  then  Kate 
in  the  order  of  their  ages  as  they  became  eligible.  Susie 
was  a  flat  failure;  perhaps  she  was  a  little  too  old  by 
that  time.  She  would  not  learn  to  dance,  and  had  abso 
lutely  no  small-talk ;  frocks  and  hats  from  the  most  expen 
sive  establishments  could  not  make  her  look  "  right.'7 
Besides  which,  she  rebelled  ungratefully  at  her  aunt-ill- 
law's  interest,  spoke  of  Mrs.  Mattie's  friends  as  "  society 
people  "  with  vinegarish  disapproval,  and  in  the  end  fled 
from  their  teas  and  luncheons  and  card-clubs,  and  went 
back  to  putting  up  preserves  and  sewing  on  buttons  with 
a  relieved  zest.  Delia  Thatcher  promised  better,  but  alas, 
she  developed  "  common  "  tendencies,  to  the  horror  and 
alarm  of  Mrs.  George  who  saw  her  own  hard-won  position 
threatened.  Delia  was  more  than  willing  to  dress,  but  she 
wore  colours  too  loud,  feathers  too  voluminous,  heels  too 
high ;  she  went  about  saturated  with  perfume,  saluted 


40  THE  BOABD&AN  FAMILY 

young  men  by  their  nicknames  to  their  faces,  and  spoke  of 
them  as  "  fellows  "  behind  their  backs.  In  short,  Delia 
was  impossible.  Mrs.  Thatcher  politely  but  firmly  gave 
her  up,  and  Delia  promptly  justified  her  by  going  off  and 
marrying  a  travelling  whiskey-salesman  by  the  name  of 
Hengstmuller !  Even  the  most  liberal-minded  will  agree 
with  Mrs.  George  that  a  travelling  whiskey-salesman  by 
the  name  of  Hengstmuller  cannot  be  imagined  figuring 
elegantly  in  society.  After  Delia  came  Kate  who  wore 
eyeglasses,  had  taken  the  course  at  Wellesley  and  wanted 
to  teach.  Kate  was  undoubtedly  the  brightest  of  the 
Thatcher  girls  and  if  she  had  had  the  slightest  bent  for 
it,  she  might  have  gone  far  in  the  career  in  which  her  aunt 
tried  to  launch  her.  As  far  as  she  went  she  was  a  success ; 
people  were  amused  by  her  sharp  little  speeches,  they 
thought  her  piquant  and  attractive  with  her  auburn  curls 
and  turned-up  nose  on  which  her  glasses  perched  daringly ; 
the  young  men  voted  her  "  cute,"  took  her  out,  danced 
with  her,  sent  her  violets  and  bonbons  during  all  of  one 
winter  season.  And  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  one. 
Kate  coolly  announced  that  she  had  taken  the  position  of 
assistant-instructor  in  Latin  and  mathematics  at  Martha 
Washington  College  for  Women;  and  shaking  the  dust 
of  society  from  her  feet  —  in  a  fine  metaphor  —  departed 
for  that  educational  institution  the  very  next  day. 

Mrs.  Thatcher  gave  up  again  —  for  good  this  time. 
She  never  attempted  to  do  anything  socially  for  the  boys 
of  the  family.  "  They  don't  need  it.  Young  men  are 
always  at  a  premium  anyhow/'  the  shrewd  lady  said  to 
herself  with  a  laugh ;  she  was  not  without  a  sense  of  hu 
mour.  And  in  fact  the  Thatcher  boys  —  there  must  have 
been  half  a  dozen  of  them  —  all  turned  out  well,  made 
friends,  and  appeared  with  credit  if  not  in  their  Aunt 
Mattie's  circle,  in  other  circles  that  touched,  even  some- 


THE  BOAKDMAST  FAMILY  41 

times  interlaced  or  overlapped  it.  But  none  of  them  went 
to  the  big  eastern  colleges  or  belonged  to  the  Country  Club 
or  did  any  of  those  eminently  "  right  "  things  which  Mrs. 
Mattie  coerced  her  own  boys  into  doing,  so  it  is  not  sur 
prising  that  she  saw  very  little  of  them  after  they  were 
grown.  Naturally  also  she  did  not  know  the  girls  they 
married,  though  she  punctiliously  sent  handsome  presents 
and  invited  the  young  couples  to  dinner.  The  only  one  in 
whom  she  took  any  real  interest  was  also  that  apple  of  his 
sister  Susie's  eye,  Master  Samuel. 

When  Mattie  Phillips  went  to  the  Thatchers,  Sam  was 
a  round,  pudgy,  jolly  youngster,  engaged  in  cutting  his 
teeth  unostentatiously  and  without  any  fuss  over  the  op 
eration,  crawling  about  on  all  fours,  and  playing  content 
edly  the  livelong  day.  Unbeknown  to  both  of  them,  he 
crawled  on  those  fat  little  hands  and  knees  straight  into 
Mattie's  heart.  The  baby  was  so  wholesome,  so  good- 
natured,  so  attractively  homely,  so  full  of  puppy  tricks 
and  gambols,  that  it  would  have  taken  a  much  harder 
nature  than  hers  to  resist  him.  At  their  first  interview 
he  "  went  right  to  her "  without  fear  or  shrinking,  to 
Susie's  inward  fury;  and  the  friendship  was  destined  to 
endure  though  subjected  to  the  severe  strain  of  Mattie's 
quasi-maternal  authority,  which,  however,  she  never  ex 
erted  unjustly  or  in  anger.  She  was  a  good  woman ;  and 
Sam  was  a  good,  honest,  manly  little  boy.  Susie  uncon 
sciously  did  her  best  to  spoil  him  with  her  irrational 
worship,  but  some  bulwark  of  common-sense  or  right- 
mindedness  in  the  lad's  character  protected  him ;  and  then, 
to  be  sure,  it  is  not  easy  to  spoil  any  one  member  of  a 
family  of  eight  or  ten,  be  he  ever  so  spoil  able!  There 
is  too  much  give-and-take,  too  much  live-and-let-live,  too 
ready  an  administration  of  barbaric  justice  in  such  a 
camp.  Sam  did  his  share  of  the  bossing  and  quarrelling 


42  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

and  fighting,  and  had  to  stand  up  for  himself,  no  doubt; 
at  an  early  date  he  made  it  plain  that  he  desired  nobody 
else  to  stand  up  for  him.  "  No.  Do'  wan'  Harry's  choo- 
choo.  Do'  wan'  no  sings  'cep'  Sam's  own  sings !  "  said 
he  with  dignity,  and  gathered  up  the  train  of  cars  which 
Harry  had  been  ordered  to  let  little  brother  play  with 
on  pain  of  being  thought  selfish,  and  went  and  laid  it  in 
Harry's  hands.  "  Good  work,  sport !  You're  all  right !  " 
said  brother  John,  beholding  this  scene  from  the  august 
summit  of  his  thirteen  years,  with  mingled  amusement 
and  approval.  And  "  No  sings  'cep'  Sam's  own  sings  " 
became  a  family  by-word.  They  used  to  tell  of  him,  too  — 
but  Susie  never  liked  this  anecdote  —  that  one  day,  after 
being  observed  a  while  in  deep  thought,  he  inquired  of 
Mattie :  "  Which  is  my  real  mother,  you  or  Ma  Susie  ?  " 
"  Why,  what  makes  you  ask,  Sam  ? "  said  the  other  teas- 
ingly.  "  'Cos  boys  has  ought  to  be  diff'runt  to  their 
mothers,"  Sam  stated  gravely.  They  all  laughed  at  the 
time,  but  years  afterward  when  Mattie  Thatcher  had  sons 
of  her  own  —  and  there  was  a  rumour  that  the  George 
Thatchers  had  a  good  deal  of  trouble  with  that  oldest  boy 
of  theirs  —  she  thought  of  that  speech  of  Sam's  with  a 
certain  wistfulness. 

At  twelve  the  youngest  of  the  Thatchers  was  what  is 
popularly  known  as  a  pretty  good  chunk  of  a  boy ;  he  was 
tall  for  his  age,  sturdily  built,  with  an  open  countenance 
which  as  the  young  gentleman  had  now  finally  acquired 
the  whole  of  his  second  set  of  teeth  was  beginning  around 
his  mouth  and  chin  to  settle  into  the  squarish  shape  it 
would  wear  through  life.  It  must  be  acknowledged  that 
Samuel  was  hardly  a  model  of  masculine  beauty,  to  the 
impartial  eye ;  Susie,  of  course,  thought  he  was  the  noblest- 
looking  specimen  of  boyhood  on  the  globe.  It  was  at 
about  this  time  that  he  fell  in  with  Everett  Boardman  at 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  43 

school.  That  circumstance,  however,  was  not  what  led  to 
his  knowing  so  well  Everett's  sister  Alexandra ;  we  are  too 
well  advised  as  to  Mrs.  Richard  Boardman's  views  to 
suppose  for  an  instant  that  a  casual  meeting  with  her  son 
would  be  a  passport  to  acquaintance  with  her  daughter. 
No,  it  was  the  discreetly  active  Mrs.  George  Thatcher 
who  set  events  in  motion  toward  that  end,  though  she 
was  not  thinking  of  Alexandra  in  particular. 

"  Is  Sam  going  to  dancing-school  ?  He  ought  to  be  sent 
to  dancing-school,"  she  said  to  Susie  one  afternoon  when 
she  had  gone  out  to  Hillside  Avenue  for  the  call  which 
she  conscientiously  made  three  or  four  times  a  year. 

Susie  pinched  her  lips  together  in  a  fashion  familiar 
to  the  older  woman.  "  No.  And  he's  not  going  to  go. 
You're  always  thinking  of  things  like  that,  Cousin  Mattie. 
I  believe  you  think  dancing-school  is  as  important  as  real 
school  —  or  church  even." 

"It  is,"  said  Mrs.  Thatcher,  undisturbed.  "If  you 
want  young  people  to  know  other  nice  young  people  and 
have  a  good  time  socially,  that  is," 

"  Oh,  socially !  I  knew  that  was  coming !  You  think 
society's  everything!"  said  Susie,  jerking  the  thread 
through  her  work  with  brusque  movements.  "  Sam  doesn't 
care  anything  about  society  now,  and  I  hope  he  never 
will" 

Mrs.  George  looked  at  her  tolerantly.  She  knew  quite 
well  that  Susie  had  always  disliked  her  and  been  jealous 
of  her;  nevertheless  she  had  a  regard  for  Susie.  After 
all,  jealousy  is  a  sort  of  left-handed  compliment ;  and, 
setting  that  aside,  she  had  the  complacent  pity  of  a  mar 
ried  woman  for  an  old  maid  —  it  does  not  matter  how 
calamitously  married  the  wife,  or  how  happy  and  success 
ful  the  spinster.  "  Poor  thing !  She  adores  Sam ;  she'd 
die  to  save  him  a  moment's  pain  —  and  yet  she'll  stand 


44  THE  BOAEDMAX  FAMILY 

right  in  his  light  all  her  life  without  knowing  it,  if  he 
or  somebody  else  doesn't  shove  her  away !  "  mused  Mattie. 
But  aloud  she  only  said :  "  Oh,  of  course  you  don't  want 
to  make  the  boy  do  anything  he  doesn't  like.  Sam  might 
not  be  a  very  good  dancer  anyhow;  some  people  can't 
learn,  you  know.  I  was  only  thinking  he  ought  to  have 
the  same  advantages  as  other  children.  It  really  is  not  so 
expensive  as  Brother  Steven  probably  thinks.  Our  little 
Georgie  is  doing  so  nicely.  I  wish  you'd  come  to  Mr.  Mat- 
son's  some  Saturday  afternoon  and  see  the  children, 
Susie.  It's  so  pretty." 

"  Sam  could  learn  to  dance  perfectly,"  said  Susie ;  she 
flushed  all  over  her  freckles.  "He  can  learn  anything. 
And  I'm  sure  father  wouldn't  grudge  the  money;  I  don't 
think  he's  ever  thought  about  the  expense.  That's  not  his 
way.  It  never  came  into  his  head,  that's  all  —  dancing- 
school  for  Sam,  I  mean."  But  Mrs.  George,  wise  as  a 
serpent  while  apparently  harmless  as  a  dove,  would  not 
continue  the  subject;  instead  she  glanced  off  upon  servants' 
wages,  cold-storage  meats,  the  improvements  in  gas-ranges 
and  a  dozen  other  irrelevant  matters,  and  at  last  gathered 
up  her  elegant  skirts  and  wraps  and  departed  without 
seeming  to  hear  Susie's  question  addressed  to  her  with  a 
funny  half-defiance :  "How  much  is  it  for  a  term  at 
Matson's  ?  "  Mattie  smiled  to  herself  as  she  went  off  along 
the  rickety  board  sidewalk;  she  had  twice  the  humour, 
insight,  calculation,  of  the  other  woman. 

In  due  time  and  not  at  all  to  the  surprise  of  his  cousin 
Mattie  —  the  children  still  called  her  cousin  —  Samuel 
turned  up  at  Mr.  Matson's  where  he  justified  his  sister's 
loyal  beliefs  by  learning  his  steps  readily  and  becoming, 
if  not  a  star  pupil  like  the  Boardman  boy,  at  least  a  very 
acceptable  partner.  Susie  used  to  go  with  him  in  her  neat, 
dowdy  clothes,  her  square-toed,  sensible,  outlandish  shoes, 


THE  BOARDMAX  FAMILY  45 

her  hats  that  might  have  been  bought  the  day  before  yet 
always  had  the  look  of  having  come  out  of  the  Ark.  The 
first  Saturday  she  brought  her  tatting!  "  I  just  can't  sit 
still  and  hold  my  hands  for  two  hours.  Doing  nothing's 
the  hardest  work  I  know,"  she  explained  to  her  neighbour 
on  the  next  chair,  catching  her  eye  bent  on  the  darting 
shuttle. 

The  other,  who  was  a  tall,  thin  old  lady  with  very  white 
hair  and  very  black  eyes,  smiled  in  a  way  that  made  her 
bony,  high-featured  face  extraordinarily  pleasant  for  an 
instant.  Although  she  said  nothing,  Susie  did  not  feel 
rebuffed;  she  was  not  much  of  a  talker  herself.  She  sat 
beside  the  old  lady  and  tatted  in  a  kind  of  silent  compan 
ionship,  through  the  rest  of  the  lesson ;  and  when  it  was 
over  the  other  rose  and  gave  Susie  another  ineffably  charm 
ing  smile  and  salutation,  and  went  away  with  a  little 
white-faced  witch  of  a  child  hanging  to  her  hand.  Susie 
had  remarked  this  latter  during  the  afternoon  for  her 
sprightly  dancing.  George's  wife  joined  her  on  the  front 
steps,  and  at  once  wanted  to  know  where  she  had  met 
Mrs.  Alexander  Boardman? 

"Mrs.  Who?"  said  Susie,  obtusely.  "I  haven't  met 
anybody.  I  didn't  know  a  soul  there.  Sam,  have  you 
got  your  rubbers  on  ?  " 

"  That  was  Mrs.  Boardman  you  were  talking  to.  I 
saw  you  talking  to  her.  Did  you  just  speak  without  being 
introduced  ?  "  asked  Mrs.  George,  with  a  sinking  sensation. 
To  approach  Mrs.  Boardman  —  Mrs.  Boardman  —  of  all 
people,  in  that  free-and-easy  style ! 

"  Well,  I  guess  I  must  have.  I  didn't  know  her  from 
Adam,  but  of  course,  everybody  there  is  respectable.  They 
always  are  wherever  there're  children  around,"  said  Susie 
with  an  ignorance  and  an  indifference  which  the  other 
knew  to  be  sincere,  monstrous  as  the  fact  seemed.  "  I 


46  THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY 

wish  I  had  known  it  was  one  of  the  Boardmans,  though," 
Susie  said  after  another  moment  with  more  interest.  "  I'd 
have  asked  her  about  tearing  out  those  old  partitions  in 
our  attic.  We've  had  the  house  so  long,  I  think  they 
might  do  that  much  for  us,  don't  you?  Goodness  knows 
father's  put  in  enough  improvements  without  ever  saying 
a  word  to  them !  We've  hardly  ever  asked  for  anything." 

Chilly  horror  crept  along  Mrs.  Mattie's  spine.  She  had 
not  bargained  for  this  when  she  subtly  engineered  Sam's 
attendance  at  Matson's ! 

"  The  old  lady  likely  don't  know  anything  about 
it,  though,"  Susie  concluded  on  further  reflection. 
"Wouldn't  do  much  good  to  talk  to  her,  I  guess.  I'm 
going  to  have  those  partitions  out  anyhow.  There  must 
be  a  lot  of  little  three-cornered  places  behind  'em,  in 
under  where  the  roof  comes  down,  and  I'll  bet  they're  full 
of  dust  and  dirt  and  stuff  that  would  take  fire  awfully 
easy.  It's  a  wonder  it  never  has  and  burned  us  all  down  to 
the  ground." 

Mrs.  George  breathed  again.  "  You  ought  to  move, 
Sue,"  she  said.  "  You  oughtn't  to  try  to  live  there  any 
longer." 

"  Yes,  I  know.  It's  running  down  like  everything,  still 
—  I'd  hate  to  move.  Mother  picked  out  all  the  things, 
and  they're  all  there  just  where  she  put  them  —  I'd  hate 
to  live  anywhere  else.  And  where'd  we  get  a  house  big 
enough  to  put  all  the  things  in,  anyhow  ?  " 

"  It  would  be  hard,"  said  Mrs.  George  sympathetically, 
remembering  the  "  things "  with  a  shudder.  Her  own 
taste  was  kept  rigidly  up  to  date.  She  herself  had  not 
as  yet  met  the  Boardman  ladies,  either  of  whom,  by  the 
way,  would  have  been  astonished  to  learn  that  they  occu 
pied  in  the  eyes  of  some  people  a  pinnacle  which  these 
latter  would  have  moved  Heaven  and  earth  to  ascend. 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  47 

It  would  have  surprised  Mrs.  Alexander  and  Mrs.  Richard 
as  much  as  it  would  have  surprised  plain,  straightforward 
Susie  Thatcher  to  be  told  that  her  Sam  capering  about 
yonder  with  Sandra  was  on  the  road  to  the  same  eminence, 
and  an  object  of  envy  to  the  mothers  of  some  of  the  other 
boys  and  girls  therefore.  Susie  only  thought  that  Sam 
liked  that  Boardman  girl  pretty  well,  and  she  was  a 
homely  little  tyke,  but  a  real  sweet,  well-behaved  child 
and  she  certainly  could  dance !  And  it  was  kind  of  a  pity 
that  the  Boardman  boy  should  be  so  good-looking  and  the 
girl  not;  seemed  as  if  by  rights  it  ought  to  be  the  other 
way,  a  man's  looks  not  mattering  near  so  much  as  a  girl's. 
With  which  simple  reflections,  Susie  was  apt  to  dismiss  the 
entire  tribe  of  Boardman,  root  and  branch,  from  her  mind ; 
ancestors  and  connections,  name  and  fame,  money  or  the 
lack  of  it,  were  nothing  to  Susie;  she  was  hopelessly  un 
sophisticated. 

As  for  Sam,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  not  trouble 
his  head  about  such  matters.  He  liked  Sandra,  and  tol 
erated  Everett,  who  for  his  part  was  for  a  while  one  of 
"  Mugsy's  "  most  devoted  henchmen.  Owing  to  the  acci 
dent  that  Sam's  home  was  bigger  than  any  other  boy's  in 
the  school,  possessing  a  yard  about  half  a  square  in  extent 
with  dense  shrubbery  and  an  old  barn  well  suited  to  the 
purposes  of  Indians,  explorers,  bandits,  circus-performers 
and  so  on,  and  owing  moreover  to  its  being  in  a  neighbour 
hood  where  most  of  the  boys  had  been  forbidden  to  go, 
Sam  was  a  very  popular  person,  and  his  "  gang  "  never 
lacked  recruits.  They  were  admitted  with  ceremonies 
involving  the  bandaging  of  their  eyes,  torches,  incantations, 
tremendous  oaths,  descents  into  the  bowels  of  the  Thatcher 
basement  and  fearful  incarcerations  there.  Everett  went 
through  this  ordeal  handsomely,  and  so  came  into  full 
knowledge  of  the  secret  grips  and  pass-words  and  other 


48  THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY 

solemn  boyish  absurdities;  and  spending  with  the  rest 
of  the  "gang"  two  or  three  afternoons  a  week  there,  he 
grew  to  knowing  the  place  well,  Miss  Thatcher  herself 
who  gave  the  boys  cookies  and  never  seemed  to  mind  their 
racket  in  the  least,  Viney  the  maid-of-all-work  they  had 
had  for  ten  years,  Hans  Wagner  the  kraut-eating  dog  who 
had  many  accomplishments  besides  that  and  was  a  dog 
of  parts,  even  Sam's  father  whom  the  boys  would  meet 
sometimes  getting  off  the  car  and  walking  up  the  hill. 
Steven  was  beginning  to  look  grey  and  care-worn  these 
days;  he  was  about  sixty,  but  might  well  have  been  a 
hundred  and  sixty  from  the  youngsters'  standpoint. 

Once  in  a  while,  of  course,  members  of  the  "  gang,"  even 
the  captain,  appeared  at  Everett's  own  home  to  confer 
upon  some  weighty  matter,  or  merely  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  fellowship ;  so  that  Sam's  red  head  and  amiable 
grin  bye  and  bye  became  more  or  less  familiar  to  the 
Boardman  household.  Everett's  father  accepted  the  boys' 
presence  philosophically.  "  Now,  look  here,  Lucy,  you 
can't  keep  Everett  by  your  side  all  his  life,"  he  said  warn- 
ingly  when  his  wife  shook  her  head  over  some  of  Everett's 
associates.  "  You  can't  dictate  to  him  who  his  friends 
shall  be,  and  you  yourself  would  think  he  was  a  pretty 
spineless  sort  of  a  boy  if  he  took  your  say-so  about  them. 
Girls  are  different,  I  suppose.  But  he's  got  to  go  out  in 
the  world  presently,  and  who  knows  who  he'll  meet  ?  Or 
what  are  you  going  to  do  about  it,  even  if  you  don't  like 
them?  People  generally  find  their  level,  I've  noticed; 
anyhow,  there're  some  things  we  can't  help  or  hinder. 
This  Thatcher  boy  seems  to  be  all  right ;  they're  very  good, 
plain  people  —  not  quite  like  ourselves,  perhaps,  but  good 
enough  for  us  or  anybody,  just  the  same.  Can't  tell  much 
about  boys,  of  course  —  I  mean  about  how  they're  going 
to  turn  out.  Can't  tell  about  Everett,  for  that  matter! 


THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY  49 

But  if  he  never  gets  into  any  worse  company,  he'll  be 
lucky!" 

So  the  Thatcher  intimacy  was  kept  up  more  by  Everett, 
to  tell  the  truth,  than  by  the  older  boy,  who  in  his  secret 
heart  was  never  sure  whether  he  liked  Everett  or  not. 
Somewhere  under  Sam's  red  thatch,  there  lodged  the  sus 
picion  that  Ev  Boardman  was  "  slick/'  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  he  had  never  been  known  to  betray  anybody, 
or  to  cheat  in  a  game,  or  to  shirk  any  enterprise  involving 
work  or  risk,  or,  in  a  word,  to  commit  any  of  the  crimes 
known  to  boyhood  whose  cave-man  creeds  have  to  be  lived 
up  to  much  more  rigorously  than  yours  or  mine,  oh  civil 
ized  adult!  Then  why  should  Captain  Mugsy  have 
privately  distrusted  him?  He  did  not  know.  The  rest 
of  the  Boardmans  Samuel  liked  well  enough  —  that  is  to 
say,  excepting  Sandra,  he  had  no  feeling  for  them  at  all, 
one  way  or  the  other.  Sam  was  too  busy  with  his  own 
concerns  to  spare  much  thought  to  grown-up  people.  He 
knew  Mr.  Boardman  in  the  same  distant  fashion  that  the 
other  boys  knew  his  own  father,  and  he  punctiliously  re 
membered  to  take  off  his  hat  to  the  ladies,  having  had  one 
meeting  with  Mrs.  Alexander  which  had  served  to  impress 
these  older  females  of  Sandra's  family  on  his  mind. 

The  senior  Mrs.  Boardman  was  writing  in  her  room 
one  day  when  there  penetrated  to  her  the  rumour  of  sundry 
pourparlers,  alarms,  excursions,  first  downstairs,  then 
upstairs,  then  outside  her  own  door ;  and  directly  an  apol 
ogetic  maid  ushered  in  a  thick,  straight,  square  boy  whom 
she  remembered  to  have  seen  before  about  the  place  and 
elsewhere.  This  time,  instead  of  a  bundle  of  school-books 
in  a  strap,  or  a  shinny-stick,  or  a  pair  of  skates,  he  carried 
under  one  arm  a  shoe-box  tightly  packed  and  bound  about 
with  twine,  and  at  his  heels  there  sniffed  and  wagged,  to 
the  impotent  indignation  of  the  maid,  a  large,  smooth- 


50  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

haired,  soiled  white  dog.  Mrs.  Boardman  was  not  dis 
turbed  by  the  apparition;  it  was  seldom  that  she  allowed 
herself  to  be  disturbed  —  or  to  betray  the  fact,  at  least 

—  by  any  event,  no  matter  what ;  had  the  boy  and  his  dog 
been  two  South  Sea  islanders  she  might,  conceivably,  have 
viewed  them  with  the  same  agreeable  composure.     She 
tranquilly  laid  down  her  pen  and  eyeglasses,  and  as  the 
servant  began  explanations,  surveyed  these  callers  and  was 
surveyed  in  her  turn.     The  result,  astonishing  to  relate, 
appeared   satisfactory   to   both   sides!     The   homely   old 
woman  smiled  her  transfiguring  smile,  Sam's  freckled  face 
lit  up  as  spontaneously;  Hans  Wagner  pushed  in  bravely 
and  laid  his  honest,  unpedigreed  head  on  her  knee.     The 
maid  uttered  a  scandalized  outcry. 

"  He  won't  bite,"  said  Sam  reassuringly. 

"  Of  course  not,"  said  Mrs.  Boardman,  patting  her 
hand  —  which  was  so  beautifully  and  delicately  shaped 
that  even  Sam  noticed  it  —  on  the  dog's  flat,  wedge-like 
skull.  "  Dogs  always  like  me.  I  understand,  Maggie. 
That  will  do.  Everything  is  all  right,  thank  you.  Your 
sister  has  found  something  in  the  house  —  something  that 
belongs  to  us  —  that  we  left  there  ? "  she  said  to  Sam  in 
faint  surprise.  "  That's  odd.  I  never  missed  anything 

—  but  there  is  such  a  quantity  of  stuff  when  one  moves. 
Think  of  its  being  there  all  this  while  —  nearly  fifteen 
years ! " 

"  Might  be  longer  than  that,"  Sam  suggested.  "  The 
carpenters  found  it  when  they  went  to  tear  out  those  old 
walls  in  the  attic."  He  hesitated ;  and  it  might  be  taken 
in  proof  of  the  confidence  she  had  somehow  inspired  that 
he  blurted  out  with  a  kind  of  shy  fun :  "  At  first  I  thought 
maybe  it  was  hidden  treasure  —  like  you  read  about,  you 
know  —  I  thought  somebody  might  have  stuck  it  away  up 
there!" 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  51 

"Nobody  in  the  Eoardman  family,  Sam,"  said  Mrs. 
Boardman  with  amusement. 

"  No,  ma'am.  The  carpenter  said  he  guessed  there  must 
have  been  lots  of  things  standing  around  the  way  they 
always  are  in  garrets,  you  know,  and  these  must  have  got 
shoved  into  the  corner  and  walled  up  without  anybody 
ever  noticing  them." 

"  That  must  have  been  the  way  it  happened,"  Mrs. 
Alexander  agreed.  And  she  thanked  him;  and  Hans 
Wagner  sat  up  and  spoke  and  shook  hands ;  and  Sam  de 
parted,  leaving  her  with  the  shoe-box  on  her  knee.  It  con 
tained,  alas  for  romance,  no  missing  will,  no  papers  incrim 
inating  anybody  or  clearing  up  anything,  nothing  but  some 
unimportant  and  uninteresting  old  letters  and  a  moth-eaten 
pincushion !  But  after  that  interview  Mrs.  Boardmau 
senior  never  forgot  Sam,  and  never  failed  to  answer  his 
salute  with  a  very  bright,  kind  glance  from  her  ordinarily 
distant  and  reticent  black  eyes.  Sandra  was  his  only 
other  real  friend  in  the  family ;  for  not  long  after  this  date, 
Everett's  interest  in  the  Thatchers  began  to  wane. 

"  Sam  says  '  ma'am '  and  '  sir '  all  the  time  when  he 
talks  —  to  old  people,  you  know.  '  Yes,  ma'am,'  '  No, 
ma'am  '  —  just  like  that  —  just  as  if  he  were  somebody's 
butler  or  gardener  or  something,"  he  remarked  fas 
tidiously.  "  And  he  calls  a  person's  people,  '  folks.' 
'  How're  all  the  folks  at  your  house  ? ' —  that's  the  way 
he  talks.  It  sounds  so  queer." 


CHAPTER  IV 

IT  was  not  until  the  next  morning  after  the  Exhibition 
that  it  became  known  what  grave  trouble  had  been 
visited  upon  one  of  Mr.  Matson's  pupils.  Only  a  few 
people  here  and  there  noticed  that  Sam  Thatcher  left  the 
place  earlier  than  usual  and  rather  abruptly.  Mrs.  George 
had  allowed  herself  to  be  overlooked  for  once;  she  gath 
ered  up  her  youngsters  and  got  them  away  hurriedly  but 
quietly.  The  dancing  went  on ;  the  carriages  were  called ; 
Miss  Hoffman  put  on  her  cloak;  the  drum-man  loosened 
up  his  drum-heads,  the  blase  violinists  packed  off  with 
their  instruments,  and  George  the  coloured  man  turned 
out  the  lights.  The  performance  was  all  over,  and  nobody 
knew  that  a  certain  other  performance  had  come  to  an 
end,  too,  until,  yawning  down  to  breakfast,  they  read  it 
in  the  Observer,  on  the  left-hand  side  of  the  inner  sheet, 
with  the  undertakers'  and  florists'  and  monument-cutters' 
advertisements  conveniently  ranged  at  the  head  of  the 
column.  Mr.  Boardman  read  it  with  an  ejaculation  of 
surprise  and  concern. 

"  Steven  Thatcher's  dead.  It  must  have  been  very 
sudden.  Why,  I  saw  him  on  the  street  just  the  other  day. 
Sixty-five.  He  looked  older.  Well,  well !  There  goes  a 
mighty  good  tenant !  "  said  Richard,  sipping  his  coffee, 
and  skimming  on  down  the  list  of  names. 

"  Does  it  say  when  it  happened  ?  Mrs.  George  Thatcher 
was  at  the  dance  last  night,  and  of  course  she  wouldn't 
have  —  not  that  it  would  make  such  a  difference  to  her, 
but  for  the  looks  of  the  thing.  I  don't  think  those  two 

52 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  53 

families  were  ever  very  intimate,"  Mrs.  Richard  specu 
lated.  "  Did  you  notice  what  a  darling  little  dress  that 
little  girl  of  hers  had  on  ?  She  dresses  her  beautifully." 

These  remarks  being  launched  at  the  table  in  general, 
went  unanswered;  but  after  a  moment  Mrs.  Alexander 
said :  "  A  good  tenant  gone,  Dick  ?  Do  you  think  the 
other  Thatchers  will  give  up  the  house  now  ?  " 

"  Hey  ?  Good  gracious,  mother,  I  don't  know !  It's 
a  little  too  soon  to  be  asking  questions  like  that,  isn't  it  ?  " 
said  Richard  with  his  eyes  on  the  paper.  "  Hello,  here's 
something  about  it  in  the  obituaries."  He  folded  the 
sheet  over  with  a  great  crackling  and  rustling,  and  read: 
" '  Steven  B.  Thatcher,  the  well-known  head  of  the 
Thatcher-Barnes  firm,  passed  away  at  his  residence,  Hill 
side  Avenue,  last  night  at  ten  o'clock.  Death  was  due  to 
cerebral  hemorrhage.  Mr.  Thatcher  was  a  native  of 
Clennont  County,  but  had  been  a  resident  of  this  city 
and  of  the  Eightieth  Ward  for  the  past  twenty  years.  He 
was  a  brother  of  George  II.  Thatcher,  at  one  time 
associated  with  him  in  business,  but  now  connected  with 
the  Gale  and  Bemis  Machine-Tool  Company.  Mr. 
Thatcher  is  survived  by  — ' :  And  here  Mr.  Board- 
man,  despite  the  solemnity  of  the  subject,  broke  off  with  a 
smile.  "  Well,  by  George !  "  said  he ;  "  this  is  the  first 
time  I  ever  did  know  for  certain  how  many  children  the  old 
man  had !  " 

"  Don't  forget  that  your  grandfather  had  ten,"  said  hia 
mother. 

"  Well,  but  that  wasn't  anything  in  those  times,  mother," 
cried  Mrs.  Richard,  defensively.  "  Nowadays  nobody  has 
those  huge  families,  except  Italians  and  people  like  that 
in  the  slums." 

Sandra  got  up  and  went  around  behind  her  father's 
chair,  reading  over  his  shoulder.  "  Sam  was  there  last 


54  THE  BOAEDMAH  FAMILY 

night  —  isn't  that  awful !  He  must  have  gone  home  right 
from  the  dancing  and  everything,  and  there  his  father 
was  —  isn't  it  ghastly,  though  ?  "  Her  large  black  eyes 
seemed  to  grow  wider,  deeper  and  blacker  in  her  pale  face 
as  she  pictured  this  sudden  onslaught  of  calamity.  "  Poor 
Sam!" 

"  Must  have  been  pretty  rough,"  Everett  agreed.  "  I 
don't  think  there's  anybody  there  but  that  funny  old-maid 
sister  —  you  know  who  I  mean  —  the  one  that  wears  those 
weird  cocky-doodle  hats.  She's  a  bird !  " 

"  Oh,  don't  talk  that  way,  Ev.  Miss  Susy  is  nice.  Of 
course  she's  funny,  but  still  —  " 

"  Oh,  they're  all  very  common  people,  you  know  that. 
I  suppose  Sam'll  drop  out  now.  He  told  me  he  was  going 
to  start  to  work  pretty  soon,  and  his  father  dying,  he'll 
probably  begin  right  off.  If  he  does,  he'll  drop  out. 
Fellows  like  that,  that  don't  go  to  college  or  anything 
are  sure  to  drop  out  —  they  get  to  going  with  another 
set,  and  you  never  see  them  again.  I've  often  noticed 
it,"  said  Everett;  young  gentlemen  are  frequently  very 
wise,  weary  and  disillusioned  at  sixteen.  His  statements, 
however,  may  have  been  true,  a  fact  which  would  remove 
them  from  the  class  of  mean  and  small-minded  gossip.  At 
any  rate,  it  was  impossible  to  associate  anything  mean 
and  small-minded  with  Everett;  he  spoke  with  a  fine  de 
tachment,  equally  indifferent  and  humane. 

It  was  little  enough  thought  that  Sam,  for  his  part,  was 
likely  to  give  to  his  place  in  society  at  any  time ;  but  at  the 
moment  he  was  too  busy  to  think  about  himself  at  all.  It 
seemed  to  the  boy  as  if  he  never  could  forget  the  cold 
night,  the  long,  cold,  noisy,  crowded  ride  in  the  street 
car,  his  uncle  silently  gnawing  at  a  dead  cigar,  the  struggle 
up  the  hill  against  a  sleety  wind,  the  drunken  chorus  from 
one  of  the  doggeries  down  below  on  the  Avenue  coming 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  55 

to  them  in  gusts,  Viney's  strangely  altered  face  as  she 
opened  the  door.  The  setting  and  the  prelude  were  so 
sombrely  dramatic,  why  had  he  not  known  what  was  going 
to  happen,  Sam  wondered.  He  had  had  no  idea  of  it! 
The  house  felt  very  hot  coming  in  from  the  winter  night, 
and  there  was  a  pungent  smell  of  some  drug  —  that  was  all 
that  he  noticed. 

"  Any  change  ? "  his  uncle  asked,  as  he  began  to  take 
off  his  coat;  in  the  very  word  and  act  he  halted  and  he 
and  Viney  looked  at  each  other,  a  brief  and  comprehending 
glance.  She  did  not  answer.  Uncle  George  uttered  a 
subdued  exclamation,  standing  with  one  arm  in  the  sleeve 
of  his  overcoat ;  he  shook  his  head.  "  Well !  "  ho  said 
with  a  short  sigh.  Somebody  came  out  of  the  parlour;  it 
was  the  doctor. 

"  Father's  upstairs  ?     He's  in  bed,  isn't  he  ?  "  said  Sam. 

"  Oh,  go  on  up,  Sammy,  go  on !  She's  up  there  all  by 
herself !  You  go  on !  "  said  Viney,  beginning  to  cry. 
Then  all  at  once  Sam  knew. 

There  ensued  days  of  that  dismal,  reverent  hurly-burly 
with  which  we  are  wont  to  put  away  the  dead.  People 
came  and  went;  the  George  Thatchers  were  most  kind; 
the  sons  and  daughters  from  all  over  the  country  wrote 
and  telegraphed;  Mr.  Thatcher's  business  associates  vol 
unteered  assistance  in  droves.  At  the  funeral,  the  local 
commandery  of  the  Order  of  Iroquois,  of  which  Steven  had 
been  Grand  Sachem,  turned  out  in  full  force;  there  were 
a  great  many  "floral  tributes,"  as  the  reporters  called 
them,  pillows  of  violets,  wreaths,  anchors,  and  broken 
columns  of  lilies  and  tuberoses.  The  choir  from  the 
First  M.  E.  Church  sang,  and  Mr.  Binns  the  pastor,  a 
young  man  recently  arrived  who  had  never  met  Mr. 
Thatcher,  preached  a  moving  sermon  that  lasted  an  hour. 
The  conduct  of  the  entire  ceremony  gave  poor  Susie  deep 


56  THE  BOARDMAK  FAMILY 

satisfaction,  and  probably  caused  Mrs.  George  Thatcher, 
that  disciple  of  correctness  and  exclusiveness,  to  writhe  in 
spirit. 

As  for  Sam,  he  scarcely  counted  in  anybody's  estima 
tion,  one  way  or  another.  Though  he  did  all  the  errands, 
and  met  all  of  the  people  at  the  stations,  and  saw  to  their 
comfort,  and  hunted  up  all  the  extra  helpers,  and  notified 
everybody  and  gathered  everybody  together  in  the  right 
place  at  the  right  time,  and  in  short  discharged  a  thousand 
small  but  essential  offices  without  forgetting  or  mismanag 
ing  a  single  one  of  them  —  though  he  was  so  handy,  use 
ful  and  reliable  as  to  be  unquestioningly  made  a  con 
venience  of  by  all  of  them,  Sam  was  still  to  the  rest  of 
the  family  nothing  but  a  boy.  His  older  brothers  and 
sisters  hardly  knew  him;  he  was  diffident  about  raising 
his  voice  in  their  councils.  Sometimes  he  thought  that 
every  one,  including  himself,  was  a  great  deal  more  im 
portant  and  busy  than  grieved.  It  came  upon  the  honest 
lad  with  horror  that  he  was  feeling  nothing  like  such  a 
sense  of  loss  and  desolation  as  when  poor  Hans  died. 
Sam  had  wept  in  secret  over  Hans,  and  even  now  his 
heart  was  sore  for  his  old  dog;  he  could  not  shed  a  tear 
for  his  father !  His  only  real  regret  came  with  the  recollec 
tion  of  that  foolish  to-do  he  had  made  about  having  a  night- 
key  ;  it  happened  on  the  morning  of  his  father's  last  day. 
Sam  wished  he  could  take  back  some  of  the  things  he  had 
said.  But,  after  all,  did  it  matter,  he  thought  reasonably 
as  he  lay  in  bed  the  night  after  the  funeral  pondering 
these  things,  gazing  into  the  dark.  His  father  and  he 
had  generally  been  pretty  good  friends;  maybe  a  son 
ought  to  feel  differently,  but  he  couldn't  somehow.  And 
anyway,  Sam  concluded  firmly,  the  thing  for  him  to  do 
now  was  to  get  busy  and  take  care  of  Susie. 

The  fact  was  in  his  role  of  supernumerary,  he  had  over- 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  57 

heard  a  good  deal  of  conversation  between  the  others  on 
a  subject  that  Sam  at  first  thought  with  his  severe  youth 
ful  intolerance,  ought  not  to  have  been  brought  up  at  such 
a  time;  in  later  years  he  came  to  know  that  it  is  in 
variably  the  staple  topic;  namely,  the  amount  of  the  dead 
man's  estate,  and  how  it  would  be  divided.  They  shook 
their  heads  over  these  speculations,  and  listening  re 
luctantly  he  gathered  that  poor  father  never  had  been 
much  of  a  money-maker;  all  of  his  profits  always  went 
straight  back  into  the  business,  and  in  spite  of  that,  it 
never  got  to  be  a  really  big  business  —  just  fair.  He  had 
had  to  work  hard  to  keep  it  going.  Why,  that  was  the 
reason  Uncle  George  got  out  of  it;  he  saw  there  wasn't 
any  future  for  it.  There  couldn't  be  more  than  a  little 
dab  all  around,  a  few  thousand  dollars,  maybe  only  a 
few  hundred,  when  it  was  wound  up.  Of  course  there 
was  the  old  farm  —  probably  father  ought  never  to  have 
given  up  farming,  or  tried  to  do  anything  else,  but  he  was 
using  his  best  judgment  at  the  time.  They  did  hope 
Susie  was  provided  for  anyhow ;  if  he  had  made  any  differ 
ence  between  the  children,  it  would  be  in  favour  of  the 
girls,  and  Susie  was  the  one  who  had  stayed  at  home 
with  him,  and  never  married.  Neither  had  Kate,  to  be 
sure,  but  she  could  take  care  of  herself  —  had  for  years 
past,  the  same  as  the  boys. 

And  so  on,  and  so  on.  Sam  heard  with  an  astonish 
ment  and  dismay  not  caused  by  the  revelations  them 
selves  but  by  certain  unpleasant  discoveries  about  him 
self  to  which  they  led.  He  had  never  supposed  his  father 
to  be  a  rich  man ;  the  trouble  was,  as  he  now  perceived, 
that  he  had  never  thought  about  their  circumstances  at 
all.  He  had  taken  his  home,  his  education,  his  clothes, 
pocket-money,  amusements,  as  he  had  taken  the  weather 
and  the  seasons,  without  considering  their  source  an  in- 


58  THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY 

stant.  Disproportionate  shame  possessed  him.  He  ought 
to  have  known  better;  he  ought  to  have  known  more;  he 
was  nineteen  years  old,  and  might  have  been  at  work  for 
the  last  two  years;  lots  of  the  other  fellows  were.  Well, 
he  had  wanted  to,  or  at  least  had  talked  about  it,  but 
Dad  and  Susie  were  so  set  on  his  graduating;  and  since 
then  —  Sam  rammed  the  statement  down  his  own  throat 
and  found  it  a  bitter  mouthful  —  since  then  he  had  done 
nothing.  That  was  the  flat  truth.  He  had  always  been 
going  to  do  something,  but  meanwhile  he  had  loafed  at 
home,  smoking  cigarettes  and  reading  novels  and  going 
out  to  see  girls  and  taking  them  places,  and  eating  three 
good  meals  a  day,  and  teasing  like  a  kid  for  a  nightkey ! 
He  had  even  let  Susie  give  him  money;  she  had  been 
giving  it  to  him  ever  since  he  was  little,  just  as  if  she 
had  been  his  mother,  and  he  had  gone  on  taking 
it  from  her.  She  loved  to  give  him  money,  looking  upon 
him  as  a  child  still,  but  what  had  he  been  thinking  of  to 
accept  it?  Was  that  the  way  for  a  man  to  act?  How 
much  precious  time  he  had  wasted,  and  where  was  he 
heading?  Master  Samuel  spent  more  than  one  bad 
quarter  of  an  hour  arraigned  before  the  merciless  court 
of  his  own  conscience;  it  will  have  been  seen  that  he 
took  himself  and  his  suddenly  imposed  responsibilities 
very  seriously;  perhaps  it  was  as  well  he  did.  Years 
afterwards  he  could  afford  to  look  back  upon  that  worried 
boy  of  nineteen  with  a  laugh.  "  Susie  would  have  made  a 
mollycoddle  of  me  —  a  regular  house-cat.  But  poor  old 
Dad  died,  and  I  got  waked  up.  I  waked  up  and  I  grew 
up  right  then  and  there !  "  he  says. 

It  was  Susie,  the  helpless,  the  unmarried,  who  of  all 
of  them  knew  where  the  will  might  be  found  and  took  the 
least  interest  in  it.  "Father  kept  it  in  his  box  at  the 
Safe  Deposit.  The  pass-word's  i  Clara ' —  poor  Ma's 


THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY  59 

name,  you  know,"  she  told  them,  sighing.  The  instrument 
confirmed  the  family  judgment;  there  was  a  little  in 
dividually  —  nobody  was  left  out  —  but  the  bulk  went  to 
Susie  — "  And  that  means  Sam,  eventually,  of  course," 
the  others  remarked  privately,  bestowing  more  attention 
on  him  than  heretofore.  His  Uncle  George  inquired  for 
the  first  time  what  he  was  going  to  do  ?  "  You're  old 
enough  to  be  at  something,  Sam.  Got  any  ideas  about 
it  ?  What  do  you  think  you  can  do,  anyway  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,  sir,"  said  Sam,  truthfully.  "  Of  course 
I  mean  to  get  some  kind  of  a  job,  if  it's  nothing  but  sweep 
ing  out  an  office.  Susie  wants  to  have  a  little  flat  some 
where,  and  have  me  live  with  her,  but  I  —  I  don't  want 
to  do  that." 

His  uncle  stared.  "Why  not?  That  seems  to  me  to 
be  all  right.  Susie  has  enough  to  live  on  and  naturally 
she  wants  you  with  her." 

"  I'm  not  going  to  have  Susie  staking  me  to  my  board 
and  lodgings,"  said  Sam.  "  That's  what  it  would  amount 
to.  She  wouldn't  let  me  pay  her  anything,  and  she'd 
worry  herself  sick  over  me.  If  it  was  I  taking  care  of 
her,  it  would  be  different;  I'd  be  glad  to.  But  not  this 
way.  I've  got  fifteen  hundred  dollars  of  my  own  that 
Father  left  me,  and  I'll  make  that  do  me  till  I  get  to 
making  something  myself.  I  won't  use  it  all  up  unless 
I  get  sick  or  have  some  pretty  bad  luck.  But  live  on 
Susie  —  !  Not  for  me !  "  announced  the  young  fellow 
stoutly,  believing  himself  to  be  acting  in  the  spirit  of 
independence  and  unselfishness.  What  he  really  wanted, 
alas  for  poor  devoted  Susie,  was  to  get  away  from  the 
petticoat  dominion,  to  be  done  with  the  petting  and  purr 
ing,  the  eternal  small  attentions,  the  petty  anxieties. 
Impatience  to  match  himself  with  other  men  in  the  man's 
world  had  belatedly  overtaken  him.  It  was  freedom  that 


60  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

he  was  after,  and  he  was  not  thinking  of  Susie  nearly 
so  much  as  of  himself,  but  Sam,  to  do  him  justice,  did 
not  know  it,  so  easily  do  we  dupe  ourselves. 

George  Thatcher  was  at  once  slightly  amused  and 
slightly  concerned.  "Well,  if  that's  the  way  you  feel 
about  it,  Sam — "  said  he,  and  broke  off,  as  one  who  sus 
pends  judgment.  "  Only  fifteen  hundred  dollars  won't 
last  for  ever,"  he  added  warningly.  "  And  you  won't  get 
it  right  off  anyhow.  Of  course  I'll  settle  everything  up 
as  quick  as  I  can,  but  those  things  take  time." 

Sam's  face  fell.  He  had  been  naively  expecting  to  get 
his  money  in  his  hand  within  a  day  or  so,  and  to  tell  the 
truth,  looked  forward  to  the  hazard  of  new  fortunes 
with  a  certain  exhilaration.  But  Uncle  George  was  the 
executor,  and  undoubtedly  knew  whereof  he  spoke.  Sam 
felt  rather  blank  and  foolish.  "  I  didn't  think  about 
that.  I  know  a  lot  about  business,  don't  I  ?  "  he  said, 
with  a  rueful  laugh. 

But  Mr.  Thatcher  did  not  smile;  instead  he  took  his 
nephew's  speech  literally  and  coldly.  "  No,  you  don't 
know  the  first  thing  —  but  you'll  learn,  I  hope,"  said  he 
with  a  disconcerting  emphasis  on  the  last  word,  and  stood 
a  moment  frowning  and  considering.  Sam  divined  that 
the  older  man's  reflections  were  not  complimentary  to 
himself.  Indeed  Mr.  Thatcher  was  thinking  with  im 
patience  that  the  boy  had  been  lamentably  babied;  the 
youngest  of  all,  and  Susie  ready  to  lie  down  and  let  him 
walk  over  her  —  it  was  natural.  The  other  sons  had  all 
started  out  early  and  were  making  their  own  living  and 
some  of  them  even  getting  married  when  they  were  Sam's 
age,  or  just  a  few  years  older.  "  I  guess  I  can  get  you 
a  place  somewhere.  I'll  look  around,"  he  said  at  length. 
"Have  you  tried  at  all?" 

"  I  spoke  to  Mr.  Boardman  when  I  went  to  tell  him 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  61 

that  we'd  have  to  give  up  the  house.  He's  going  to  let 
us  off  the  rest  of  the  lease.  He's  first-rate ;  he  said  such 
nice  things  about  Dad,"  Sam  explained  eagerly.  "  He 
thinks  maybe  they'll  want  another  man  in  the  office,  and 
he  said  he'd  bear  me  in  mind.  He's  great;  he's  a  great 
old  fellow  —  gentleman,  I  mean,  of  course." 

George  Thatcher  grunted.  "  Old,  hey  ?  Well,  I  sup 
pose  anybody  that's  past  fifty  seems  as  if  he  had  one  foot 
in  the  grave  to  you."  He  paused  and  reflected  again.  "  I 
wouldn't  go  much  on  what  he  said,  Sam.  He  just  didn't 
want  to  discourage  you.  Even  if  you  went  in  his  office, 
it  wouldn't  be  the  best  thing  for  you.  Boardman's  got 
a  boy  of  his  own  coming  along,  and  presently  there 
wouldn't  be  room  for  two  of  you,  and  that  would  be  your 
finish.  No,  I  wouldn't  bank  any  on  that  prospect.  I'll 
see  what  I  can  do.  Now  according  to  my  notion,  you'd 
better  live  along  quietly  with  Susie  and  manage  the  best 
you  can.  I  don't  doubt  you'll  make  good  in  time." 

There  now  began  for  Sam  that  process  of  "  dropping 
out"  which  had  been  forecast.  For  it  is  to  be  feared 
that  young  Mr.  Thatcher's  debut  in  the  commercial  world 
was  not  exceptionally  brilliant,  or  even  promising.  He 
was  conspicuously  unlike  those  gifted  youths  we  are  con 
stantly  meeting  with  in  fiction  who,  without  previous 
training  or  experience,  can  plunge  into  the  thick  of  af 
fairs,  and  not  only  hold  their  own  magnificently  but  de 
feat  their  elders  repeatedly  in  pitched  contests  of  wits, 
resourcefulness,  foresight  and  craft.  They  know  every 
thing,  they  fear  nothing,  they  never  make  a  mistake 
—  except  in  sentimental  matters,  when  they  are  in 
variably  the  greatest  boobies  on  earth.  Even  so,  they  are 
sure  —  owing  to  some  final  prodigious  coup  —  to  come  to 
a  satisfactory  explanation  with  the  heroine  in  the  last 
chapters.  In  real  life  we  never  come  across  these 


62  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

Napoleonic  boys;  it  is  doubtful  if  we  would  sit  down 
to  table  with  them  or  allow  them  in  our  houses,  their 
manners  generally  leaving  something  to  be  desired;  and 
as  this  is  a  tale  of  real  life,  it  will  have  to  be  admitted, 
I  say,  that  Sam  Thatcher  did  not  belong  to  their  class. 
Anything  but !  Sam  was  sanguine  enough  about  his  own 
powers;  he  fully  believed  that  he  had  the  stuff  in  him 
to  do  as  great  things  and  do  them  as  easily  as  those  novel 
ists'  young  men  about  whom  he,  like  the  rest  of  us,  had 
read  so  much.  He  believed  it  until  time  and  the  world 
"  knocked  it  out  of  him  "  as  he  would  say  himself  now 
adays. 

To  begin  with,  it  was  obscurely  disquieting  to  find 
how  many  bright  young  men  with  a  high-school  educa 
tion  but  no  particular  equipment  otherwise  were  going 
about  in  search  of  a  job.  At  moments  it  seemed  to  Sam 
as  if  some  malign  influence  had  deprived  every  boy  in 
the  community  of  resources  and  driven  him  out  to  make 
a  living,  while  at  the  same  time  it  removed  from  every 
business  concern  the  slightest  necessity  for  a  boy's  serv 
ices  !  "  Oh  yes,  we've  let  some  of  our  clerks  go,"  he 
actually  heard  a  prosperous-looking  man  saying  to  an 
other  ;  "  might  as  well  and  save  a  little.  We  can  hire  'em 
again  any  time  we  need  'em.  You  can  go  out  and  get 
all  you  want  for  thirteen  dollars  a  week."  It  was  the 
truth,  as  Sam  knew,  worthy  of  Shylock  though  the  speech 
might  be. 

In  the  spring,  however,  he  did  get  a  position  with  the 
Williamson  News  and  Periodical  Company  which  he  held 
for  some  six  months,  until,  moved  doubtless  by  the  same 
considerations  as  the  thrifty  person  just  quoted,  they  "  let 
him  go."  After  that  he  was  for  nearly  a  year  in  a 
broker's  office  on  Walnut  Street,  about  which  there  is  an 
impression  abroad  that  the  less  said  the  better ;  it  appeared 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  63 

that  he  was  not  indispensable  there  either.  There  was 
an  interval  when  he  had  no  work;  if  history  is  not  mis 
taken  there  was  another  interval  when  he  thought  he 
would  study  law,  but  upon  trial  discovered  that  he  had 
no  turn  for  it;  in  all  it  must  have  been  close  upon  three 
years  that  Samuel  was  see-sawing  about  from  one  thing 
to  the  next.  Then  one  day  at  last  he  went  with  the 
Victorgraph  people  merely  as  an  extra  salesman  during  a 
rush  season,  but  they  kept  him  on  afterwards,  and  there, 
contrary  to  his  own  and  everybody's  expectation,  Sam's 
adventures  and  uncertainties  ended.  He  is  with  the 
Victorgraph  Company  now.  He  has  been  all  over  the 
world  selling  these  marvellous  machines,  and  has  strange 
and  laughable  and  sometimes  hair-raising  stories  of  in 
stalling  Victorgraphs  in  Esquimaux  igloos,  in  South-Sea 
palm  shacks,  for  Afghan  ameers,  Philippine  dattos, 
Klondyke  millionaires,  the  native  Y.  M.  C.  A.  of  Tokio, 
Japan,  the  Seventh  Day  Adventist  Church  (coloured)  of 
Canopolis,  Georgia.  There  is  an  especially  glorious  one 
in  Susie's  parlour  with  a  case  wonderfully  painted  and 
inlaid  — "  The  kind  they  ask  the  trade  three  thousand 
dollars  for,"  she  says  proudly.  "  Sam  got  one  of  those 
big  artists  in  London  or  Paris  to  make  the  design.  I 
can't  remember  his  name  but  it's  a  very  famous  man. 
Sam  knows  everybody." 

He  does  indeed,  and  has  wound  up  the  records  for 
"Sole  mio"  (Caruso)  and  that  celebrated  fox-trot  "/ 
like  a  chicken  in  the  spring-time "  (The  Victorgraph 
Ukalele  Band)  before  crowned  heads,  and  amongst  the 
sands  of  the  Soudan  —  all's  one  to  Sam.  He  is  always 
the  same,  though  getting  a  little  thicker  in  the  waist  now, 
with  hair  as  red  as  ever,  and  laughing-wrinkles  at  the 
corners  of  his  eyes,  in  which  latter  one  may  discern  not  a 
little  humour  and  sagacity.  "  Why,  just  drifted  into  it 


64  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

—  had  to  have  something  to  do,  you  know,  and  just  hap 
pened  to  get  this.  I  never  dreamed  it  would  turn  out  the 
way  it  has,"  he  will  say,  and  laugji  and  shake  his  head 
and  perhaps  branch  off  to  one  of  his  varied  experiences, 
a  Sindbad  of  the  disc  and  needle.  There  is  only  one 
thing  that  he  will  not  talk  about:  that  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  with  which  his  career  began  years  ago ;  is  it  a  co 
incidence  that  he  seldom  mentions  that  time  on  Walnut 
Street  either?  "Everybody  gets  bit  once,  I  guess,"  he 
has  been  heard  to  say.  "  Particularly  the  ones  that  think 
they're  too  smart."  And  with  a  half-sigh,  a  half-chuckle, 
"  Lord,  what  fools  we  all  are !  " 


CHAPTER  V 

IT  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  a  great  gap  was  created  in 
society  by  the  dropping  out  of  Mr.  Samuel  Thatcher. 
The  boys  and  girls  of  the  Boardmans'  set,  for  instance, 
scarcely  noticed  it;  even  Sandra  herself  who  knew  him 
better  than  most  of  the  others  did,  and  liked  him,  all 
but  forgot  him  in  a  few  months.  The  young  things  had 
too  much  on  their  hands  to  miss  anybody  long; 
they  were  absorbed  in  their  affairs,  going  to  college,  going 
to  finishing-school,  going  incidentally  to  camp,  to  the 
mountains,  to  the  seashore  in  summer,  to  Coronado  or 
Miami  in  winter,  to  Europe  at  any  season ;  taking  lessons 
in  all  the  arts;  worrying  or  being  worried  over  about 
their  clothes,  their  complexions,  their  manners;  gay, 
anxious,  careless,  hurried,  incredibly  happy  and  incredibly 
unconscious  of  it.  Everett  went  to  Princeton  that  year, 
Sandra  to  a  well-known  establishment  for  young  ladies, 
on  the  Hudson  River,  much  patronized  by  Mid- Western 
mothers  of  Mrs.  Boardman's  circle.  It  all  cost  Richard 
Boardman  a  pretty  penny,  but  being  a  parent  is  universally 
conceded  to  be  an  expensive  business  —  more  expensive, 
it  has  been  boasted,  in  our  country  than  anywhere  else; 
and  it  probably  never  entered  his  head  to  deny  the  children 
such  reasonable  advantages.  He  paid  the  tailors'  and 
dressmakers'  bills,  the  countless  extras,  the  constantly  in 
creasing  allowances  of  pocket-money  without  a  protest. 
It  was  only  about  the  housekeeping  expenses  at  home 
that  he  sometimes  seemed  to  be  concerned. 

"I  —  I   suppose  you  look  over  these  accounts  every 

65 


66  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

month  and  see  that  they  are  all  right,  Lucy  ? "  he  said 
gently;  Richard  never  scolded,  never  found  fault. 
"  Things  must  have  gone  up  a  good  deal." 

"  Gone  up  a  good  deal !  "  echoed  his  wife,  in  wonder 
at  his  obtuseness.  "Why,  they've  gone  up  terribly! 
Everybody's  talking  about  it.  Haven't  you  heard  them? 
We  live  just  the  same  as  we  always  have,  Dick,  it's  just 
that  the  grocers  and  all  of  them  keep  putting  more  on 
the  price  of  things  every  day.  I  don't  know  what  we're 
all  going  to  do  if  it  keeps  on.  I  don't  know  how  I  can 
manage  any  better." 

"  I  know  you  try  —  I  mean  I  know  you  manage  as 
well  as  anybody  can,"  said  Richard  apologetically.  "  But 
it  certainly  does  seem  as  if  it  cost  us  a  great  deal  to  live, 
doesn't  it  ?  I  only  thought  we  might  —  well  —  cut  down 
a  little  here  and  there  —  ? " 

"  Well,  I  wish  you'd  tell  me  where,"  said  Mrs.  Board- 
man,  still  on  the  defensive.  She  looked  across  the  table 
at  him  a  little  resentful,  a  little  alarmed.  It  was  very 
seldom  in  all  their  twenty-odd  years  of  life  together  that 
Richard  had  called  in  question  anything  she  had  done. 
"  Is  anything  the  matter,  Dick  ? "  she  asked,  not  with 
out  a  tremour.  "Is  there  anything  wrong  at  the  office ?  " 

Her  husband,  detecting  her  tragic  surmises,  began  to 
laugh,  in  spite  of  himself.  How  dear  she  was  —  and  how 
absurd !  "  Great  goodness,  no !  As  if  I  would  worry  you 
with  anything  of  that  sort  anyhow !  "  he  said.  "  Every 
thing's  all  right.  Only  we've  got  to  be  careful  —  we  ought 
to  save  a  little  if  we  can  —  on  the  children's  account,  you 
know.  Money  doesn't  go  as  far  as  it  used  to,  somehow 
—  or  else  we  all  of  us  want  more.  Things  we  used  to 
think  were  luxuries  are  just  the  commonest  comforts  now 
adays;  and  we  won't  ever  get  back  to  the  old  standards, 
I  don't  believe.  But  don't  you  worry,  Lucy.  We  aren't 


THE  BOARDMA^  FAMILY  67 

going  to  the  poor-house  yet  awhile.  I've  always  sup 
ported  my  family,  and  I  expect  to  keep  it  up."  Richard 
finished  with  humorous  self-confidence.  "  Just  don't 
let  them  overcharge  you.  Be  a  little  careful,  you  know. 
That's  all."  And  he  took  his  hat  and  kissed  her  and 
left  the  house,  Mrs.  Boardman  watching  him  away,  re 
assured,  yet  uneasy.  She  wished  remorsefully  that  she 
had  not  bought  —  had  not  had  charged,  that  is  —  that  set 
of  new  curtains  for  the  living-room;  she  couldn't  return 
them  now,  they  had  been  up  a  week,  and  they  were  so 
pretty  anyhow,  just  what  she  wanted.  Why  hadn't  Dick 
spoken  about  the  bills  before?  Never  mind,  she  would 
pay  for  the  curtains  herself  out  of  her  allowance;  if  she 
couldn't  pay  all  of  it  at  once,  she  could  do  it  by  degrees, 
some  every  month.  Dick  need  never  see  the  bill;  she 
had  had  bills  before  that  she  kept  from  him.  He  wouldn't 
like  for  her  to  pay  that  way;  if  he  knew  he  would  in 
sist  on  paying  the  whole  thing  at  once;  but  she  hadn't 
the  face  —  he  was  always  so  good  about  things  like  that. 
She  ordered  the  remains  of  the  roast  beef  curried  with 
rice  for  luncheon,  and  sat  down  to  the  dish,  cheered  by 
her  good  resolutions  and  by  this  piece  of  frugality. 

Sandra  Boardman  came  out  one  season  during  the  second 
administration  of  one  of  our  best-known  and  most  vari 
ously  estimated  presidents,  a  gentleman  who  has  arrived  at 
an  equal  celebrity  going  gunning  for  big  game  in  Africa, 
and  for  rival  candidates  here  at  home.  It  was  the  year  of 
a  financial  crisis  that  kept  many  a  business-man  tossing 
through  sleepless  nights,  drove  new  wrinkles  by  the  score, 
and  sowed  grey  hairs  broadcast.  Sandra's  father  did  not 
escape;  nevertheless  she  "came  out,"  had  her  closet  full 
of  new  frocks,  and  her  party  at  the  Country  Club  where 
her  slim  satin  slippers  twinkled  along  the  dancing-floor 
with  just  a  little  more  grace  and  spirit  than  any  of  the 


68  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

others',  according  to  her  admirers.  She  gave  the  impres 
sion  of  being  pretty,  owing  to  a  deceptive  brilliancy  of 
face,  and  to  a  very  good  figure,  at  once  round  and  slender. 
Her  father  and  mother  were  decorously  proud,  her  grand 
mother  openly  and  insistently  so.  "  It  is  permissible  for 
a  grandmother  to  be  idiotic  —  it  is  rather  expected,  in 
fact,"  the  old  lady  said  with  a  kind  of  cool  animation. 
Yet  somehow  she  contrived  neither  to  be  foolish  herself 
nor  to  make  Sandra  feel  foolish  —  the  worst  crimes  which 
age  can  commit  in  the  eyes  of  youth. 

There  existed,  however,  a  curious  sympathy  between  the 
girl  and  her  grandmother.  It  was  natural  that  Sandra 
should  accept  the  standards  and  subscribe  to  the  opinions 
of  her  elders,  natural  even  that  she  should  have  very 
nearly  the  same  tastes,  likes  and  dislikes;  during  her 
career  as  a  debutante,  Sandra  never  gave  anybody  trouble 
by  being  daring  or  original  or  unconventional.  The  odd 
thing  was  that  when  she  was  beset  by  some  social  perplex 
ity,  she  went  to  her  grandmother  with  it  rather  than  to 
her  mother.  Mrs.  Alexander  possessed  the  unusual  gift 
of  listening ;  and  the  delicate  reticence  which  she  practised 
about  herself  and  her  own  affairs,  gave  one  a  profound 
confidence  in  her.  Whatever  advice  she  gave  —  never 
without  being  urgently  asked  —  was  always  kind,  practi 
cal,  good-humoured  and  to  the  point ;  and  she  never  made 
the  peculiarly  irritating  mistake  of  telling  the  young 
people  what  they  knew,  or  thought  they  knew,  already. 
Mrs.  Richard  was  not  so  careful  or  so  astute.  "  Mother 
is  the  dearest  ever.  But  you  aren't  afraid  to  tell  Grand 
ma  anything/"  Sandra  would  sum  it  up,  in  private. 

Little  Miss  Boardman,  without  being  noticeably  more 
popular  or  more  sought  by  the  men  than  other  debutantes 
—  there  were  not  very  many  that  winter,  whether  because 
of  the  hard  times,  or  from  whatever  reason  —  had  a  highly 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  69 

successful  season.  Everett  came  home  for  the  holidays, 
and,  as  it  is  by  no  means  a  drawback  to  a  young  lady 
to  have  a  good-looking  brother  with  charming  manners 
—  or  to  have  a  brother  of  almost  any  description,  for  that 
matter  —  Everett,  all  unaware,  perhaps  contributed  some 
what  to  Sandra's  success.  The  will  would  not  have  been 
lacking,  at  any  rate,  for  the  young  fellow  was  fond  of  his 
sister,  though  unsparingly  critical  of  her,  her  hair,  her 
dress,  her  conversation,  according  to  the  habit  of  male 
relatives.  When  they  went  out,  he  was  as  carefully  atten 
tive  as  if  she  had  been  "  any  girl,  you  know,"  Sandra  told 
her  grandmother. 

"  I  don't  see  why  I  shouldn't  be  as  nice  to  my  sister 
as  to  any  girl,"  said  Everett,  amused,  chancing  to  over 
hear  this  speech.  "  A  person  ought  not  to  have  two  sets 
of  manners." 

"  No.  But  lots  of  the  men  just  drop  their  sisters 
around  anywhere,  and  never  go  near  them  again  till  the 
end  of  the  evening,  and  don't  know  whether  they're  having 
a  good  time  or  not.  You  know  they  do,  Ev.  You've  seen 
Harry  Button  — " 

"  Oh,  yes,"  Everett  said  dispassionately  but  with  the 
effect  of  heading  off  his  sister's  comments.  It  was  against 
his  creed  to  listen  to  or  to  utter  anything  even  remotely 
disparaging  about  another  man  behind  his  back,  especially 
in  the  presence  of  women.  He  shifted  the  talk,  dexter 
ously  enough.  "  That  reminds  me,  I  don't  believe  I  can 
go  Thursday  night,  San.  I've  asked  Alice  Church  to  go 
to  this  Midsummer  Night's  Dream  performance.  They 
say  it's  great.  Annie  Russell  is  Puck,  you  know.  I 
thought  I  ought  to  do  something  for  Alice,  the  Churches 
have  been  so  nice  to  me,  and  I  want  to  show  some  appre 
ciation." 

His  grandmother  surveyed  his  serious  face  with  a  smile. 


70  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

"  Praiseworthy  motives,  Everett !  But  after  all,  it's  not 
exactly  a  penance  to  go  to  the  theatre  —  not  this  time,  at 
least  —  and  Alice  seems  to  be  a  very  sweet  companion 
able  girl/'  she  said  mischievously,  a  remark  which  brought 
forth  hot  protest  from  Sandra. 

"  Oh,  grandma,  he's  giving  up  the  dinner-dance !  Alice 
isn't  asked.  I  think  it's  lovely  of  Ev.  Most  of  the  boys 
would  have  to  be  made  to  do  anything  like  that." 

"  The  dance  won't  break  up  until  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  at  the  earliest.  It  was  nearly  breakfast-time 
before  you  got  back  from  your  last  party.  You  will  have 
time  to  take  Alice  home,  and  go  on  there  afterwards, 
won't  you  ? "  said  Mrs.  Alexander ;  and  though  she  still 
smiled,  there  was  studious  inquiry  in  the  eyes  she  turned 
on  her  grandson.  Sandra  caught  the  expression  and  was 
moved  to  a  passing  wonder :  "  What  made  grandma  so 
funny  all  at  once  ?  "  It  was  not  like  her ;  she  seemed  to 
be  trying  to  pick  some  flaw  in  Everett,  who,  on  his  side, 
offered  no  defence.  He  thought  it  unbecoming.  Let  his 
grandmother,  or  let  any  woman  be  as  waspish  as  she 
chose ;  that  was  the  part  of  magnanimity. 

"  I  could  if  we  had  an  automobile,"  was  all  he  said  in 
answer  to  the  old  lady's  last  suggestion.  "  You  can  get 
around  so  much  quicker."  It  was  not  the  first  time  the 
young  people  had  brought  up  that  subject.  Everett  had 
pointed  out  the  advantages  of  an  automobile  again  that 
very  morning  when  he  went  to  the  office  to  ask  his  father 
for  the  money  to  buy  the  theatre-tickets.  Mr.  Board- 
man  put  off  considering  it  until  next  year. 

"Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Alexander.  The  look  of  interroga 
tion  faded  from  her  face,  giving  place  to  her  usual  ex 
pression  of  pleasant  and  courteous  interest.  "  A  carriage 
is  better  than  nothing,  however,  when  one  takes  a  lady 
out,  eh?"  And  rising  up,  she  crossed  the  room  to  the 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  71 

old  desk  in  the  Mid-Victorian  "  Gothic  "  style,  all  over 
trefoils  and  pinnacles  and  openwork  scrolls  that  stood  in 
one  corner,  and  took  some  green  bills  out  of  one  of  its 
drawers.  She  came  back  with  them  in  her  hand,  per 
forming  the  whole  action  with  a  slow  elegance  which  both 
the  young  people  watched  with  admiration,  thinking  how 
different  she  was  from  most  old  women.  They  were 
generally  mere  bags  of  bones,  or  bags  of  flesh,  tied  with  a 
string  around  the  middle !  "  I  like  to  see  you  so  careful 
about  these  small  proprieties,  Everett  —  acknowledging 
your  social  debts,  and  all  that.  I  don't  believe  that 
young  men  think  about  those  things  quite  so  much  now 
adays  as  they  ought  to,"  the  old  lady  said,  and  with  some 
laughing  hint  about  the  high  cost  of  living  including  such 
items  as  carriage-hire,  she  presented  the  money  to  him  in 
the  prettiest  of  ways. 

Everett  took  it,  flushing  with  pleasure  and  surprise. 
"  That's  ever  so  kind  of  you,  grandma  —  but  you're  always 
doing  kind  things."  He  stooped  over  her  hand  and  kissed 
it  with  a  courtly  flourish  wherein  fun  and  tenderness 
mingled.  Between  them,  the  management  of  the  little 
scene  was  a  masterpiece,  if  one  recognizes  the  fact  that 
giving  and  taking  are  for  most  of  us  conspicuously  awk 
ward  acts. 

The  season  ended  at  last;  a  girl  cannot  be  a  debutante 
year  after  year.  The  reflection  had  occurred  to  Sandra's 
mother  more  than  once  with  a  relief  she  would  not  in 
tentionally  have  acknowledged.  "  I  don't  mind  the 
running  around  with  them,  or  waiting  up  till  all  hours, 
or  having  the  house  upset  and  breakfast  sent  up  at  noon ; 
and  of  course  one  likes  to  entertain  and  get  the  new 
clothes  for  them,  and  see  them  having  a  good  time.  I 
don't  mind  any  of  that  one  bit,  though  I'm  nearly  dead 
now  it's  over,"  she  confided  to  Mrs.  Alexander.  "  It  does 


72  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

cost  frightfully  —  sometimes  I've  felt  as  if  we  ought  not 
to  be  doing  it  —  but  after  all  it's  only  once.  Sandra  can 
have  it  only  once  in  her  whole  life;  it  would  have  been 
so  hard  for  her  to  see  all  her  friends  coming  out,  and 
not  to  have  had  the  same  chance  herself.  Because  you 
know  how  it  is,  Mother,  if  a  girl  doesn't  have  something 
done  for  her  right  at  the  beginning,  she  simply  is  out  of 
it !  She  misses  ever  so  much.  Well,  anyway,  we've  done 
it.  Next  winter,  I  suppose  they'll  begin  and  call  Sandra 
one  of  the  '  old  girls  ' —  that's  the  way  they  do,  you  know. 
I  hope  she'll  marry  before  she  gets  to  be  one  of  the  real 
old  ones.  Oh,  of  course  I'd  like  her  to  have  two 
or  three  winters  of  being  a  young  lady;  by  that  time 
they've  had  enough  of  it  —  enough  of  the  wild  racing 
around  from  one  thing  to  the  next  every  hour  of  the  day 
and  night,  I  mean.  And  everybody  else  is  getting  mar 
ried,  so  they  feel  as  if  they'd  better,  too.  I  know  that's 
the  way  I  did.  That's  what  makes  me  feel  as  if  that  were 
the  proper  way  for  every  girl  to  do;  have  a  beautiful 
time  first,  and  then  get  married !  "  said  Mrs.  Kichard, 
smilingly  aware  that  these  views  were  not  exactly  elevated, 
but  ready  to  stand  up  for  them  as  being  thoroughly  practi 
cal.  Indeed,  hers  was  the  voice  of  every  mother  in  her 
set;  and  if  catechized,  they  would  one  and  all  have  ex 
pressed  the  same  sound  feeling  in  the  same  rather  cheap 
words. 

That  summer  the  Richard  Boardmans  took  a  cottage  at 
Sag  Harbor,  and  Sandra  continued  to  have  a  beautiful 
time  in  accordance  with  her  mother's  code.  There  was  the 
dearth  of  young  men  so  often  noticed  at  our  summer-re 
sorts,  but  Everett  was  with  them;  and  the  girls  and  boys 
boated  and  played  tennis  and  danced  with  a  zest  that  took 
no  account  of  the  hot  weather,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  not 
much  more  of  the  fathers  of  the  families  in  the  offices  at 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  73 

home  with  the  electric  fans  going,  and  the  typewriters 
clacking  all  day  long.  For  it  is  needless  to  say  that  "  the 
Kichard  Boardmans  "  did  not  include  Kichard  Boardman 
himself;  he  could  not  take  the  time  away  from  business 
to  spend  even  a  week  at  the  Sag  Harbor  cottage ;  his  wife 
was  a  little  worried  by  his  appearance  when  she  and 
Sandra  came  back  towards  the  end  of  September. 

The  treadmill  of  gaieties  began  again;  new  girls  came 
out,  but  the  "  old  "  ones,  the  weathered  veterans  of  twenty- 
one  or  -two  or  over,  did  not  incontinently  withdraw  into  the 
background.  Sandra  and  her  set  were  scarcely  less  busy 
than  the  winter  before.  "  They  simply  never  rest,  they 
never  stay  at  home  a  minute.  I  don't  believe  her  father 
has  seen  Sandra  once  for  weeks  —  she's  not  up  in  the 
mornings,  of  course,  and  so  seldom  in  at  night.  It's  the 
hardest  thing  in  the  world  to  get  hold  of  her  even  for  a 
fitting/'  Mrs.  Boardman  would  say  in  fatigued  surprise. 
"  There's  always  something.  If  it  isn't  just  an  ordinary 
bridge-party  or  a  dance  that  somebody's  giving,  why,  then 
it's  the  theatre,  or  a  charity,  or  the  Garden  Club,  or  the 
Grafters'  or  the  Players'  or  the  Afternoon  Musical. 
They  can't  seem  to  get  enough  to  do.  Of  course  we  went 
like  everything  when  I  was  a  girl,  but  I  don't  remember 
that  there  was  so  much  always  going  on  for  the  young 
people.  I  think  I'll  have  to  take  Sandra  to  Atlantic  Gity 
or  somewhere  in  the  spring  for  a  complete  rest.  She 
can't  keep  on  like  this." 

Nevertheless  she  did  keep  on  with  all  the  others,  some 
times  refreshed  by  a  stay  at  Atlantic  City  or  elsewhere, 
sometimes  not.  That  was  Sandra's  life  for  three  years 
-  four  years  —  there  came  a  time  when  she  did  not  care 
to  count  up  the  time  it  had  lasted,  when  she  thought 
about  it  herself  with  wonder  or  misplaced  shame.  Mis 
placed,  because  she  surely  was  entitled  to  the  pursuit  of 


74  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

happiness  as  she  saw  it  —  we  have  authority  for  that  from 
the  mightiest  document  we  Americans  think  was  ever  pro 
duced  —  and  misplaced  because  she  was  not  to  blame  for 
a  system  of  life  in  the  fashioning  of  which  she  herself 
had  scarcely  had  a  hand.  The  girl  thought  as  she  had 
been  directed,  wanted  what  she  had  been  told  it  was  proper 
to  want,  acted  as  it  was  the  rule  of  her  circle  to  act.  No 
marionette  pulled  by  strings  ever  executed  its  movements 
more  faithfully  or  with  less  initiative.  What  would  you 
have?  She  did  not  lack  sense,  character,  heart;  but  the 
idea  that  there  might  be  other  ends  besides  that  of  being 
a  "  nice  "  girl,  and  having  a  "  beautiful  time  "  had  not 
yet  entered  Sandra's  young  head.  Her  horizon  was  so 
lovely  a  spectacle  of  rose  and  gold,  that  she  could  not 
realize  its  pitiful  narrowness. 

Among  the  younger  ones  who,  by  coming  out  year  after 
year,  gradually  and  inevitably  reduced  Miss  Boardmari 
and  her  contemporaries  to  the  ranks  of  the  "  old  girls  " 
was,  of  course,  Miss  Julia  Thatcher.  Equally  of  course, 
she  was  the  most  successful  debutante  of  her  set;  not  for 
nothing  had  her  mother  been  busy  all  these  years.  No 
matron  in  society  was  more  firmly  established  than  Mrs. 
George  Thatcher;  to  see  her  with  her  furs,  her  diamonds, 
her  limousine,  her  awesome  butler,  her  smart  house,  who 
would  ever  have  recognized  the  little  Mattie  Phillips  of 
twenty-five  years  past,  that  went  to  State  Normal,  taught 
school  for  a  term  or  two  up  at  Corncob  Corners,  made  her 
own  clothes,  and  had  only  one  new  dress  a  year  at  that, 
and  was  not  unskilled  at  the  stove  and  washboard  besides, 
before  she  came  down  here  to  keep  house  for  Cousin 
Steven?  It  is  doubtful  if  her  daughter  Julia  had  ever 
heard  of  that  time  —  Julia,  who  had  her  own  little  gaso 
line  runabout,  her  own  little  ingenue  string  of  pearls, 
maids  to  trail  after,  her,  trunks  upon  trunks  of  Paris- 


THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY  75 

created  millinery,  frills  and  flounces.  No  wonder  she 
was  a  success! 

Sandra  Boardman  was  a  good  five  years  older  than 
Julia  whom  she  scarcely  knew.  But  the  latter' s  appear 
ance  in  society  stirred  certain  memories  in  the  older  girl, 
and  Sandra  one  day  made  an  opportunity  to  ask  her  what 
had  become  of  Sam  I  Lo,  Julia  could  not  tell !  "  He's 
travelling  all  the  time,"  she  said  vaguely.  "  I  don't  know 
where  he  is  just  now.  You  know  Cousin  Sam's  so  much 
older  than  I  am,"  she  explained  ingenuously ;  "  and  being 
away  at  school  so  long  —  and  in  Europe  all  last  year  — 
I  haven't  seen  him  for  ages." 

By  one  of  those  startling  coincidences  which  we  have 
all  witnessed  at  least  once,  it  was  not  three  days  later 
that  Sandra  fell  in  with  Sam  Thatcher  himself,  very 
much  alive  and  considerably  improved  in  looks  over  the 
boy  she  had  known.  It  was  one  spring  afternoon  when 
starting  for  the  Tennis  Club  she  dropped  in  at  the  drug 
store  on  the  Adams  Road  corner  for  a  nip  of  some  stimulat 
ing  beverage  like  lemon-and-ginger-soda,  say.  The  drug 
store,  which  drove  a  humming  trade  among  the  youth 
ful  residents  of  the  North  Hill,  was  opulently  supplied 
with  magazines,  candy,  cigars,  letter-paper,  tooth-brushes, 
india-rubber  appliances,  alcohol  lamps,  and  even  some 
drugs,  as  it  were  by  an  after-thought;  besides  which  its 
equipment  embraced  not  only  a  great  deal  of  plate-glass, 
a  handsome  composition  floor  resembling  petrified 
sausage-meat  and  an  onyx  soda-fountain  all  glorious  with 
out  and  within,  but  also  over  in  the  corner  by  the  weigh 
ing-machine  an  instrument  about  the  same  size,  elegantly 
finished  in  mahogany,  with  a  placard  on  it  setting  forth 
that  it  was  the  new  Electric  Victorgraph.  You  dropped 
a  nickel  in  the  slot,  and  were  rewarded  by  any  one  of 
a  dozen  ravishing  harmonies,  upon  the  pressing  of  the 


76  THE  BOARDMASF  FAMILY 

proper  button.  The  records  were  changed  every  week  — 
the  Sextette  from  Lucia  —  Alabama  Rag  —  Nearer,  my 
God,  to  Thee  —  Rogers  Brothers  in  Panama  —  Madame 
Butterfly  and  so  on  were  among  this  week's  choice. 

"  If  you  don't  see  what  you  want  ask  for  it !  "  said  a 
man  who  was  studying  the  list  as  Sandra  entered.  He  got 
out  a  nickel  and  presently,  sure  enough,  the  obedient 
machine  was  making  the  place  resound  with  "  'Rastus  on 
Parade."  The  man  stood  listening  with  a  thoughtful  grin. 

"  I  should  think  that  would  draw  'em,"  he  said,  saunter 
ing  across  to  the  clerk. 

The  clerk  responded  that  it  sure  did !  "  Of  course  it's 
pretty  hot  right  now,  and  there're  not  so  many  round  as 
in  the  evenings.  But  gee,  you  oughta  see  'em  when  they're 
waiting  for  the  car  sometimes!  Bunch  around  the 
machine  can't  get  their  money  out  fast  enough,"  said 
he,  setting  out  Sandra's  glass  and  providing  her  with 
a  long-handled  spoon,  two  salt  crackers  on  a  plate,  a 
Japanese  napkin  and  a  five-cent  check  all  with  a  single 
expert  motion.  "  What's  yours  ?  " 

The  other  was  in  the  act  of  saying  that  he  would  take 
a  glass  of  vichy,  when  his  eyes  quite  accidentally  met 
Sandra's  in  the  ornate  mirror  that  hung  behind  the 
fountain;  on  a  sudden  he  stumbled,  stared  hard,  then 
averted  his  gaze  guiltily,  and  directly  afterwards  stole 
another  glance  while  endeavouring  to  look  as  if  he  were 
watching  the  clerk.  Sandra,  for  her  part,  had  stared  too, 
for  the  fraction  of  a  second;  she  thought  she  knew  him 
—  thought  she  did  not  know  him  —  said  to  herself  that  it 
couldn't  be  —  decided  that  it  was.  This  last  was  final ; 
she  was  ready  for  him  the  next  time  he  glanced  her  way, 
caught  his  eye  squarely,  and  spoke  frankly  and  smilingly. 
"  Why,  Mr.  Thatcher !  I  didn't  know  you  for  a  minute !  " 

He  turned  very  red,  and  jerked  off  his  hat,  and  came 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  77 

up  to  her  smiling  too,  pleased  and  confused.  "  I  was 
sure  it  was  you.  You  look  just  the  same." 

"  You  don't.     You  seem  so  much  older,  somehow." 

"  Well,  I  am  older  — "  In  these  momentous  words, 
interspersed  with  laughter,  was  the  old  acquaintance  re 
newed.  If  there  was  any  awkwardness  about  the  en 
counter,  it  was  all  on  Sam's  side;  Sandra  was  by  this 
time  far  too  experienced  a  woman  of  the  world  —  her 
world  —  to  show  embarrassment  in  any  circumstances. 
But  the  young  man  had  scarcely  spoken  to  a  girl,  unless 
in  the  way  of  business  for  what  seemed  to  him  years  and 
years ;  he  felt  all  at  once  that  he  knew  nothing  about  them 
—  nothing  about  this  particular  kind  of  girl,  at  any  rate. 
For  it  crowded  into  his  mind  that  though  Sandra  might 
look  the  same  —  she  was  in  fact  a  great  deal  prettier, 
he  thought  —  she  was  not  really  the  same  at  all.  She 
was  "  Miss  Boardman "  now,  for  one  thing,  and  he 
was  "  Mr.  Thatcher,"  and  all  the  good  old  boy-and-girl 
times  were  done  and  over  with  for  ever.  She  was  speak 
ing. 

"  It's  so  odd.  I  was  asking  your  cousin  about  you  the 
other  day  —  I  haven't  seen  you  for  so  long  —  and  here 
you  are !  " 

"  My  cousin  ?  Oh  yes,  you  mean  Julia.  I  don't  see 
much  of  them  —  once  in  a  while,  that's  all.  I'm  not  at 
home  much." 

"  She  said  you  were  travelling." 

"Well,  yes.  I'm  going  and  coming  a  good  deal. 
Everybody  well  at  home  ?  " 

"  Oh,  very,  thank  you.  Is  —  are  —  er  — "  In  spite 
of  her  self-possession,  Sandra  had  to  halt  with  a  lost  feel 
ing  ;  she  could  not  remember  who  or  what  or  where  Sam's 
immediate  family  were.  He  might  be  married  for  all  she 
knew,  and  might  possibly  resent  her  ignorance  or  forget- 


78  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

fulness.  But,  to  her  relief,  he  answered  at  once  without 
noticing  how  she  had  fumbled. 

"  Why,  my  sister's  all  right,  thanks.  She  doesn't 
change  a  bit.  Wants  to  run  after  me,  and  wait  on  me  hand 
and  foot  the  same  way  she  always  did  when  we  used  to  be 
going  to  Matson's,  remember  ?  Only  of  course  I  won't  let 
her,  nowadays.  Susie's  getting  along;  she  must  be  over 
forty."  And  here,  as  Sandra  got  down  from  the  stool, 
and  began  to  adjust  her  veil  and  gloves,  Mr.  Thatcher 
abruptly  changed  the  subject.  "Er  —  have  a  sundae, 
won't  you  ? " 

Sandra's  acrobatic  feminine  mind  had  reached  the  con 
clusion  from  the  first  part  of  his  speech  that  he  was  not 
married.  No  man  talks  about  his  sister  when  he  can 
talk  about  his  wife.  As  to  the  last  it  needed  no  great 
penetration  or  quickness  to  construe  "  Have  a  sundae  ?  " 
as  "  Do  stay  and  talk  to  me  or  let  me  talk  to  you  for  a 
minute !  "  His  honest  blue  eyes  told  her  that  much  for 
that  matter.  She  hesitated. 

"  Strawberry  or  chocolate  ?  Or  maybe  they've  got  some 
thing  else  ?  "  said  Mr.  Thatcher  briskly.  Sandra  gave  it 
up;  after  all,  why  not?  —  even  if  her  mother  did  pro 
nounce  it  "  common  "  ?  "  Goodness,  I'm  twenty-three. 
That's  old  enough  to  know  how  to  behave.  And  I've 
known  him  for  ever  so  long  —  at  least  I  used  to  know 
him.  And  it  all  depends  on  who  you  are,  anyhow !  "  she 
thought  swiftly,  and  sat  down  again  laughing. 

Sam  was  unaffectedly  content.  He  would  have  liked 
to  sit  there  the  rest  of  the  afternoon,  eating  sundaes, 
although  that  rich  and  sweet  confection  was  ordinarily 
not  at  all  to  his  taste.  The  young  fellow  had  just  dis 
covered  that  his  life  was  intolerably  lonesome.  "  I've 
gotten  so  that  I  feel  like  a  stranger  everywhere,  even  here 
in  my  home  town,"  he  confided  to  Sandra,  in  the  course 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  79 

of  a  brief  autobiography.  "  I'm  everlastingly  on  the 
move,  and  never  can  stop  long  enough  anywhere  to  make 
friends,  you  know.  Then  I  come  back  here,  and  nearly 
everybody  has  forgotten  me.  Oh,  I  don't  mind,"  he  added 
hastily,  anxious  not  to  be  understood  as  complaining  of 
his  work  in  which  he  was  really  profoundly  interested, 
or  making  a  bid  for  sympathy,  which  he  would  have 
scorned  to  do.  "  I  like  it,  and  I  seem  to  be  pretty  well 
suited  to  it.  It's  just  bound  to  be  a  restless  sort  of  busi 
ness,  that's  all." 

"  My  grandmother  says  that  everybody  is  restless  now 
adays  —  in  business  and  everything  else.  She  says  I'm 
restless,"  said  the  girl,  with  some  wonder.  "  And  I  never 
do  anything.  I  don't  go  nearly  as  much  as  some  of  the 
girls." 

"  Maybe  she's  right,  though.  You've  got  to  get  up  and 
hustle  if  you're  going  to  do  anything,  or  some  other  fellow 
will  get  there  first.  Not  much  chance  for  people  that 
want  to  take  it  easy.  I  know  that!  "  said  the  young  man. 
He  paused  reminiscently.  "  Your  grandmother  used  to 
be  a  very  fine-looking  old  lady." 

"  Yes  indeed,  she  is  still." 

"  Of  course  she  wouldn't  remember  me,  but  I  do  her 
very  well.  She  always  had  a  look  as  if  she  didn't  choose 
to  tell  all  she  knew;  as  a  boy,  I  recollect  how  that  im 
pressed  me.  Has  she  got  that  beautiful  room  still  ?  " 

Sandra  looked  at  him  surprised  and  questioning.  Her 
grandmother  had  always  had  the  same  room  at  the  top 
of  the  house,  wide,  cool  and  grey.  There  were  bare 
walls,  a  shelf  of  books,  the  plain  bed,  the  desk,  the  clock, 
two  little  copper  candlesticks.  Mrs.  Boardman  indeed  im 
parted  to  it  as  she  did  to  everything  about  her,  her  very 
gloves  and  garments,  her  own  air  of  gracious  reserve,  so 
that  the  place  had  character,  it  even  had  something  like 


80  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

a  soul,  but  Sandra  had  never  thought  of  it  as  beautiful. 
She  said  so,  adding,  "  I  didn't  know  you  had  ever  seen 
it." 

"  I  never  did  but  once."  He  told  her  about  it,  de 
scribing  himself  and  Hans  Wagner  with  a  good  deal  of 
humour.  "  She  was  just  as  nice  as  could  be  to  both  of 
us.  Nothing  but  a  boy  and  his  dog!  I  suppose  that's 
•why  I've  never  forgotten  it.  I  thought  she  was  the  most 
wonderful  old  lady,  and  that  room  was  the  most  beautiful 
place  I  had  ever  seen.  No  fuss  about  muddy  boots  and 
paws,  and  nothing  to  knock  over  and  break.  One  wouldn't 
ever  feel  restless  there,  I  expect.  When  you're  out  in  the 
world,  you  like  to  think  about  a  place  like  that  sometimes." 

"  I'll  tell  her  you  said  that." 

"Gracious,  don't!"  said  Sam,  taken  aback.  "  She'll 
think  I  mean  just  the  room,  but  I  know  it  must  be  your 
grandmother  living  in  it.  Nobody  else  could  make  it  feel 
that  way,  I  don't  believe." 

"Perhaps  not.     There  isn't  anybody  like  her." 

She  rather  expected  that  his  next  move  would  be  to 
ask  if  he  might  call,  and  was  wondering  just  how  he 
would  go  about  it,  and  preparing  what  she  would  say  in 
return.  But  as  they  rose  and  started  towards  the  street, 
Sam  asked  another  question  entirely  different. 

"What's  Everett  doing?" 

"  Why,  he's  looking  around.  He  hasn't  gotten  into 
anything  yet,"  Sandra  explained.  That  Everett  was  look 
ing  around  and  that  he  had  not  gotten  into  anything  yet 
were  facts  so  familiar  to  her  and  so  negligible  that  she  was 
surprised  again  to  observe  the  seriousness  with  which 
Sam  took  them. 

"  Is  that  so  ?  "  said  he  in  evident  concern.  "  Why,  I 
thought  he  would  go  in  with  your  father,  most  likely  — 
if  he  didn't  study  a  profession,  law,  or  something." 


THE  BOARDMAtf  FAMILY  81 

"  He  did  have  an  idea  of  law  for  a  while,  but  he  gave 
it  up  after  he  got  through  college.  Ev  doesn't  care  much 
ahout  tiles  either;  he  thinks  he'll  like  some  other  kind  of 
business  better." 

"  Well,  it  takes  a  good  while  to  get  started  at  anything, 
unless  you've  had  special  training.  You  don't  always 
find  the  right  thing,  right  off.  It's  pretty  hard,"  said 
Sam,  still  with  a  gravity  that  Sandra  found  inexplicable. 
Everett  himself  was  not  in  the  least  grave  about  his  pros 
pects.  "  You  remember  me  to  him,  and  tell  him  I'm 
wishing  him  luck,"  said  Sam  earnestly.  A  moment  later 
he  was  gone  on  the  down-town  car,  and  Sandra  was  taking 
up  her  road  in  the  opposite  direction,  towards  the  Tennis 
Club.  He  had  not  said  a  word  about  calling,  after  all. 


CHAPTER  VI 

FOR  almost  the  first  time  in  their  history,  the  Board- 
mans  did  not  leave  town  that  summer.  The  season 
was  as  long  and  as  hot  as  usual;  everybody  they  knew 
departed  to  the  Michigan  and  Atlantic  coast  resorts,  to 
Canada,  Colorado,  the  Adirondacks,  but  the  Boardmans 
stayed  on  at  home.  Sandra  indeed  had  sundry  invita 
tions  to  visit  friends  in  some  of  these  localities,  but  she 
declined.  Her  mother  would  have  had  her  go ;  it  was  the 
girl  herself  who  during  the  discussion  of  railroad  arrange 
ments,  and  the  necessary  additions  to  her  wardrobe,  ob 
served  an  expression  on  her  father's  face  that  sent  her 
to  bed  unwontedly  thoughtful.  At  breakfast  the  next 
morning,  Mrs.  Boardman  who  had  planned  new  dresses 
and  accessories  until  she  fell  asleep,  and  even  then  very 
likely  had  gone  on  planning  them  in  her  dreams,  began 
to  talk  happily  about  going  down  town  to  shop  when 
Sandra  interrupted  with  revolutionary  words. 

"I  don't  believe  I  care  enough  about  it  to  take  that 
great  long  tiresome  trip  and  make  the  changes  and  all," 
she  announced.  "  It  will  be  awful  in  this  weather.  Of 
course  it's  lovely  at  Biddef ord  after  you  get  there  —  but 
somehow  I  can't  work  myself  up  to  going ;  I  feel  too  lazy 
to  make  the  effort.  It  isn't  as  if  I'd  never  been  there,  or 
anywhere;  I've  gone  to  the  seashore  dozens  of  times.  I 
don't  care  a  thing  in  the  world  about  it;  it's  not  worth 
while." 

"  Oh,  but  Sandra,  you'd  have  such  a  good  time ! "  her 

82 


THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY  83 

mother  protested,  in  as  great  a  disappointment,  as  if  she 
herself  were  being  denied  the  pleasure.  "  You  ought  not 
to  miss  it." 

"  I  always  have  a  good  time  wherever  I  am  —  I'm  hav 
ing  a  good  enough  time  now,"  said  Sandra.  "  I'd  rather 
spend  the  money  on  something  else,  if  there  was  anvthing 
I  needed." 

"  Well,  you  could  do  that,  of  course,"  said  Mrs.  Board- 
man  hopefully.  "  What  were  you  thinking  of  ?  Painted 
furniture  for  your  room  would  be  — " 

"  No,  no,  I  don't  want  it.  I  don't  want  anything !  " 
Sandra  interposed  hurriedly.  She  began  to  laugh.  "  I 
believe  you  just  want  to  go  down  town  and  buy  some 
thing,  Mother.  I  believe  that's  what  you  really  like  to 
do  the  best  of  anything." 

"  I  generally  get  my  money's  worth,  too,  miss,"  retorted 
Mrs.  Richard,  laughing  too.  "  It  is  ever  so  much  fun  to 
shop,"  she  added  so  simply  and  literally  that  Sandra  broke 
into  fresh  amusement. 

"  Oh,  Mother,  you  are  such  a  dear !  "  She  jumped  up 
and  ran  around  the  table,  and  seizing  her  mother's  shoul 
ders  from  behind,  went  through  the  process  known  to  the 
youthful  Boardmaus  as  "  woolling  her  around  "  —  that 
is  to  say  giving  her  a  more  or  less  rough-and-tumble 
cuddling.  They  applied  it  also  to  kittens,  the  family  dog, 
little  children,  anything  that  could  be  petted  or  was  at  all 
cuddle-able,  in  short.  Mr.  Boardman  heard  the  outcry 
that  invariably  'accompanied  it,  and  looked  up  across  the 
top  of  his  paper  with  an  absent  smile. 

"  This  child  insists  she's  not  going,  Dick,"  cried  out  his 
wife,  ineffectually  trying  to  defend  herself.  "  Mercy, 
Sandra,  do  be  careful  of  my  hair-net !  She  actually  pre 
fers  staying  at  home  and  roasting  with  the  rest  of  us  to 
going  to  Biddeford !  " 


84  THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY 

"  Do  you  really  ?  "  said  Kicliard,  incredulously.  "  You 
can  go  if  you  want  to,  you  know,  San." 

"  I  don't,  and  I'm  not  going !  "  Sandra  declared.  She 
was  in  earnest;  to  tell  the  truth,  she  had  once  or  twice 
felt,  of  late,  that  to  be  for  ever  "  going  "  was  the  most  mo 
notonous  business  on  earth.  Supposing  she  did  make  this 
Biddleford  Pool  visit,  Sandra  could  visualize  every  inci 
dent  of  it,  the  cinders,  the  heat,  the  abominable  stuffy  sleep 
ing-car,  the  change  at  Boston,  Marian  meeting  her,  the 
other  girls  and  young  men;  she  knew  beforehand  what 
every  one  would  wear,  would  say,  would  do,  how  they  would 
picnic  and  go  clamming  and  sailing ;  somebody  would  have 
a  guitar  or  banjo,  somebody  else  —  or  all  of  them  —  would 
sing;  she  herself  would  infallibly  be  asked  to  do  some 
fancy-dance.  It  would  be  the  same  old  thing  over  and 
over  again ;  nobody  ever  seemed  able  to  think  of  anything 
new;  certainly  she  couldn't.  No,  she  chose  to  stay  at 
home  where  she  could  have  her  room  to  herself,  and  not 
be  obliged  to  share  —  civilly  pretending  that  she  liked  it 
—  with  who  knows  how  many  other  girls,  who  would  get 
their  things  mixed  with  hers  and  borrow  them  and  lose 
them,  and  talk  about  one  another  or  about  the  men  the 
livelong  day  and  night.  She  did  not  feel  at  all  virtuous 
over  the  renunciation,  but  rather  cynical  and  world- 
weary.  "  I've  had  so  much  of  that  sort  of  thing,"  she 
said;  and  self-occupied  as  she  was,  did  not  miss  the 
shadow  of  relief  that  passed  over  her  father's  face. 

"  Oh,  very  well,  if  that's  the  way  you  feel,"  was  all  he 
said,  and  resumed  the  paper. 

But  Sandra  could  not  put  that  look  of  his  out  of  her 
mind;  thinking  of  it,  she  saw  or  fancied  she  saw,  some 
subtle  change  in  her  father.  The  difference  in  age  between 
their  parents  and  themselves  seems  to  children  so  vast  that 
a  corresponding  difference  in  appearance  becomes  merely 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  85 

incidental.  If  any  one  had  said  to  Sandra  that  her  father 
looked  careworn  and  much  older  of  late,  she  would  have 
answered  in  all  good  faith  that  he  had  always  looked  as 
he  did  now;  of  course  he  was  old;  when  she  could  first 
remember  Ijim,  he  must  have  been  already  thirty-odd! 
He  might  as  well  have  been  a  hundred  and  thirty,  accord 
ing  to  the  ruthless  reckoning  of  youth.  Whatever  alter 
ation  she  divined  in  him,  Sandra  did  not  set  it  down  to 
years.  But  various  phrases  about  "  business- worry  "  and 
"  nervous  collapse  "  floated  through  her  mind  disturbingly. 
They  united  and  took  shape,  as  it  were,  in  a  longing  to 
ask  a  certain  question,  which  unfortunately  was  precisely 
the  kind  of  question  that  in  the  Boardman  family  would 
have  been  considered  little  short  of  indecent.  Truly,  her 
elders  had  never  laid  down  any  hard-and-fast  rule  about 
it;  but  that  very  fact,  namely,  that  they  never  mentioned 
the  thing  at  all,  was  more  significant  than  any  making  of 
rules.  Moreover,  Sandra  did  not  know  whom  to  ask; 
that  her  mother  should  know  anything  about  it  was  un 
thinkable;  to  go  to  her  grandmother  might  prove  nearly 
as  futile.  Sandra  was  sure  that,  in  accordance  with  their 
creed,  they  had  never  allowed  themselves  to  touch,  even 
ever  so  lightly  on  the  subject.  "  In  their  day  women 
weren't  supposed  to  know  anything  about  money  or  bus 
iness.  They  can't  change  themselves  now,"  thought  the 
girl.  There  remained  Everett,  but  to  ask  him  would  be 
worse  than  asking  their  father ;  he  would  be  more  shocked 
and  if  he  did  not  know  he  would  hate  to  have  to  confess 
it  to  her.  Thus  Sandra  reasoned,  showing  by  the  way 
some  little  discernment.  In  the  end  she  went  to  Richard, 
to  headquarters.  It  took  courage. 

"  Daddy,  do  you  mind  telling  me  something  ?  " 
"  I  suppose  not.     That  is,  if  it's  something  I  know 
something  about,"  said  Mr.  Boardman  in  the  tone  he  had 


86  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

adopted  when  Sandra,  at  fourteen,  used  to  spread  her 
algebra  problems  before  him.  "  What  is  it  ?  " 

Sandra  braced  herself  and  let  the  bolt  fall.  "  How 
much  have  we  got  to  live  on  ?  " 

It  was  out!  She  stood  convicted  of  the  ineffable  bad 
taste,  the  vulgarity,  if  you  choose,  of  wanting  to  know  the 
size  of  their  income,  and  by  inference  what  was  done 
with  it!  Her  father,  however,  did  not  seem  horrified; 
perhaps  he  was  too  astonished.  After  an  instant  of  blank 
staring,  he  ejaculated,  "How  much  have  we — !  What 
under  the  sun  put  that  into  your  head  ?  " 

"I  —  I  just  thought  I'd  like  to  know,"  stammered 
Sandra  in  dire  confusion. 

There  was  another  profound  pause.  Then  Richard  said 
kindly  —  in  his  kindness  he  carefully  looked  away  from 
her  scarlet  face,  so  as  not  to  see  her  embarrassment  — 
"  What  is  the  matter,  Alexandra  ?  Haven't  you  —  er  — 
that  is  —  haven't  you  quite  enough  to  spend  ?  Is  there 
one  of  those  dreadful,  terrorizing  bills  from  Madame 
What's-her-name  hanging  over  you  ?  Never  mind,  it  will 
be  all  right.  I  know  you  can't  help  it  sometimes  — " 

"  ~No,  no,  it's  nothing  like  that.  I  haven't  anything 
—  I  mean  I  don't  owe  anybody  — 

"  You're  sure  about  that  ?  "  asked  her  father,  know 
ingly  and  humorously.  ff  No  bills,  hey  ?  Not  even  a 
little  teeny-weeny  one  for  a  hat  or  something  ?  "  He  got 
out  a  cigar,  and  clipped  the  end  off  it,  looking  at  her  from 
under  his  eyebrows  with  smiling  slyness,  mimicking  her 
fondly.  "Sure?" 

"  Yes,  I'm  sure.  There !  I  mean  it !  "  said  the  girl 
almost  crossly.  She  had  expected  the  episode  to  be  se 
rious,  had  approached  it  with  shrinking,  if  not  fear;  to 
have  it  degenerate  into  farce  somehow  put  her  out  of 
countenance.  And  her  father  was  now  smiling  with  the 


THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY  87 

open  and  shameless  amusement  that  women  find  so  vex 
atious. 

"  Well  then,"  said  he,  reducing  his  features  suddenly 
to  an  owlish  gravity ;  "  why  this  sudden  interest  in  the 
financial  status '?  " 

"  I  just  felt  as  if  I'd  like  to  know,"  Sandra  repeated 
helplessly,  conscious  of  something  ineffective  about  her 
appeal.  It  was  as  if  she  had  addressed  her  father  in  some 
language  unknown  to  him.  She  tried  again  earnestly, 
though  still  apologetically.  "  It  seemed  to  me  I  — 
I  ought  to  be  told  something  about  —  about  things  like 
that,  you  know,  Dad  — " 

He  cut  her  short  good-naturedly,  glancing  at  his  watch. 
"  Oh,  pshaw,  you  don't  need  to  bother  your  head  over  what 
we  have  to  live  on.  You  couldn't  understand  even  if  I 
tried  to  explain  —  a  young  girl  like  you !  Call  up  and 
ask  the  exchange  for  the  exact  time,  will  you,  please, 
Sandra?  I  believe  I'm  slow." 

"  I  could  understand  as  well  as  Ev,  if  I  am  a  girl," 
Sandra  objected,  lingering.  "  I'm  older  than  he  is,  and 
Ev's  never  had  anything  to  do  with  business  either." 

Mr.  Boardman  gave  a  kind  of  regretful  laugh.  "  I'm 
afraid  that's  true,  San.  I  declare  I  sometimes  wish 
Everett  would  go  off  and  fall  in  love  with  some  nice  girl ! 
If  he  wanted  to  get  married,  it  might  put  some  ambition 
into  him.  But  you  don't  need  to  take  any  measures  of 
that  kind,"  he  added  hastily,  half  smiling,  half  sober. 
"  Well  now,  are  you  going  to  get  me  the  correct  time  ?  " 

She  obeyed  baffled,  vaguely  reassured,  yet  vaguely  dis 
satisfied.  It  was  not  that  she  was  really  anxious  about 
their  "  financial  status "  as  Mr.  Boardman  phrased  it. 
Sandra  could  not  help  knowing  that  they  were  not  so  well 
off  as  the  George  Thatchers,  for  instance,  or  a  dozen  other 
people  she  could  name,  but  what  of  that  ?  "  Mother  and 


88  THE  BOAKDMAtf  FAMILY 

Grandma  and  I  aren't  pining  away  for  gold  vanity-cases 
and  ermine  stoles  and  butlers  and  chauffeurs  and  orchids 
and  all  that/'  said  Sandra  to  herself  with  a  laugh.  They 
were  reasonable.  But  being  so  reasonable,  why  could  not 
her  father  have  answered  her  ?  What  did  he  think  would 
happen  if  she  knew  —  to  put  it  grossly  —  how  much  he 
made  a  year?  She  could  be  trusted  not  to  run  around 
telling  everybody  in  town.  And  as  to  explanations,  a  few 
figures  were  all  she  wanted;  she  had  not  asked  how  the 
money  was  made,  but  how  much  there  was  of  it.  Sandra 
was  willing  to  allow  that  "  business  "  was  a  highly  recondite 
matter  which  she  could  not  possibly  grasp,  but  she  knew 
that  two  and  two  make  four,  the  girl  thought  with  a  little 
pique.  Instead  of  meeting  her  question  simply,  he  must 
go  chasing  off  —  these  were  Sandra's  own  words  —  after 
the  notion  that  she  was  in  trouble  with  the  dressmaker, 
and  was  trying  to  break  it  to  him  gently.  She  indignantly 
told  herself  that  she  was  above  any  such  cheap  and  childish 
devices,  and  Daddy  ought  to  know  it  by  this  time.  She 
never  had  tried  to  sneak  out  of  anything,  or  to  lay  the 
blame  on  somebody  else,  or  to  blarney  him  with  soft  words. 
But  his  first  idea  had  been  to  set  her  mind  at  rest,  to  keep 
her  from  worrying;  and  then  when  he  found  out  the  real 
cause  of  her  seriousness,  instead  of  setting  her  mind  at 
rest,  or  keeping  her  from  worrying,  he  had  laughed! 
His  behaviour  aroused  in  her  two  warring  impulses;  to 
shake  him  and  to  hug  him.  He  was  so  generous,  so 
forbearing,  so  infinitely  good  —  and  so  exasperating. 

He  had  let  fall  a  word  about  Everett,  though,  that  man 
ifestly  came  from  the  heart.  Whatever  their  means, 
there  could  not  be  enough  to  keep  Everett  in  idleness, 
Sandra  reflected  with  a  puckered  brow.  If  anybody  in 
the  family  had  a  right  to  leisure,  it  was  Dad,  not  Everett. 
Somehow  she  had  not  thought  about  it  before,  but  now 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  89 

the  fact  thrust  itself  upon  her  that  Everett  was  idle. 
Idle  was  the  word.  He  was  not  doing  anything;  they 
were  so  accustomed  to  seeing  him  do  nothing  during  vaca 
tions,  that  they  had  forgotten  he  had  been  out  of  college 
a  year  and  a  half.  She  recalled  the  look  on  Sam 
Thatcher's  face  when  they  had  spoken  of  her  brother  with 
sudden  illumination.  Sam  had  viewed  Everett's  jobless 
estate  with  grave  sympathy,  and  had  sent  him  what  was 
evidently  meant  for  a  cheering  and  heartening  message 
—  the  circumstance  had  certain  ironical  aspects  which 
Sandra  shrank  from  acknowledging  even  to  herself.  The 
girl  was  invaded  by  a  sense  of  personal  responsibility 
which  her  saner  judgment  told  her  was  unreasonable,  yet 
which  she  could  not  shake  off.  It  was  in  nowise  her 
fault  that  Everett  was  without  a  position;  that  she  could 
do  nothing  towards  sharing  or  lightening  her  father's 
burdens,  he  himself  had  made  plain.  Yet  even  while 
reminding  herself  of  these  facts,  Sandra  felt  upon  her  a 
formless  desire  to  account  for  herself  in  some  way,  to 
vindicate  her  own  existence.  The  difficulty  was  that  she 
did  not  know  what  she  ought  to  do,  or  could  do,  or  wanted 
to  do;  for  the  first  time  the  harness  of  class  and  sex 
restrictions  she  had  worn  from  her  cradle,  chafed.  "  If 
I  had  been  a  boy,  I'd  have  been  of  some  use.  Dad  would 
have  let  me !  "  she  thought  rebelliously.  But  she  must 
remain  in  her  sphere  of  ornament,  of  insignificant  joys, 
varied  by  insignificant  cares.  They  made  her  eat  jam, 
when  she  would  just  as  lief  have  dined  off  of  plain  bread 
and  butter.  The  jam  diet  had  always  suited  her  mother, 
therefore  it  must  suit  her.  "  Well,  of  course,  Mother  —  /  " 
Sandra  said  to  herself  tolerantly. 

The  mood  passed ;  it  was  a  Jonah's-gourd  sort  of  growth, 
too  exotic  to  the  Boardman  zone  to  flourish  there  long. 
But  it  passed  all  the  quicker  because  about  this  time 


90  THE  BOAKDMAlSr  FAMILY 

Everett  did  actually  get  something  to  do  at  last.  A  friend 
of  his  father's  gave  the  young  man  a  place  in  his  office. 
Although  the  monthly  salary  could  be  expressed  in  two 
figures,  neither  of  them  among  the  biggest,  there  was  the 
prospect  of  advancement,  and  at  any  rate  one  must  make 
a  beginning  somewhere,  somehow.  Mr.  Boardman  was 
perhaps  both  relieved  and  hopeful,  although  he  preserved 
the  appearance  of  humorous  indifference  characteristic 
of  the  American  father.  The  delight  of  the  women  of 
the  family,  on  the  other  hand,  was  almost  too  great  and 
too  openly  voiced  to  be  complimentary;  it  moved  Everett 
himself  with  a  kind  of  annoyed  amusement. 

"  Why,  it  isn't  anything  —  it's  just  until  I  get  some 
thing  better/'  he  expostulated.  "  For  Heaven's  sake  don't 
act  as  if  Fd  just  been  appointed  to  the  Cabinet!  And 
besides  if  you  make  such  a  fuss  about  it,  people  will  begin 
to  think  I  was  going  to  the  dogs." 

"  Oh,  but  we  don't  make  a  fuss  about  it  to  outsiders, 
Everett.  That  wouldn't  be  nice,  and  it  always  sounds  so 
silly.  You  know  I  wouldn't  do  anything  like  that,"  said 
his  mother,  a  little  hurt.  "  You  surely  don't  mind  our 
taking  an  interest  and  being  pleased." 

"  Of  course  not  —  only  I'm  afraid  you'll  forget  and  give 
yourselves  away  some  time.  Now  you  look  out,  or  I'll 
come  over  there  and  wool  you  around !  "  the  young  fellow 
threatened  her  in  mock  ferocity.  "And  you  ought  to 
remember,"  he  added  with  a  self-respecting  humbleness 
that  became  him  well,  "  that  this  is  all  Mr.  Arnold.  He 
knows  that  he's  not  getting  any  prize  in  me.  He's  just 
doing  it  on  Dad's  account." 

Mrs.  Richard  looked  troubled.  "  Yes,  I  know.  I  wish 
I  could  think  of  some  more  tactful  way  to  show  him  that 
we  appreciate  it.  You  thanked  him,  of  course,  Everett, 
but  just  what  did  you  say  ? " 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  91 

The  father  and  son  exchanged  a  glance.  "  Oh,  I  —  I 
guess  Mr.  Arnold  knows  how  I  feel,  Mother,"  said  Everett, 
shrinkingly.  "  I  guess  he  understands." 

"  Probably  the  best  way  for  Everett  to  show  his  appre 
ciation  will  be  for  him  to  make  good  in  the  position, 
Lucy,"  said  Mr.  Boardman,  in  his  gentle  way.  "  I  don't 
think  you  need  to  do  anything." 

She  looked  from  one  of  them  to  the  other  silenced,  and 
rather  awed.  The  proposal  she  was  about  to  make  to 
invite  the  Arnolds  to  dinner,  died  on  her  lips;  a  moment 
before  she  had  been  considering  it  with  some  complacency 
as  a  very  nice  little  attention  to  show  them,  particularly 
as  it  necessitated  real  effort  on  her  part.  For  she  would 
naturally  have  to  call  on  Mrs.  Arnold  beforehand;  they 
were  quiet  people  whom  Mrs.  Richard  Chase  Boardman 
had  never  known,  never  even  met  or  seen,  but  they  must 
be  familiar  enough  with  society  to  realize  that  a  visit 
from  her  was  a  proper  and  gracious  thing  —  a  nice  thing, 
in  short,  to  do.  Now,  however,  something  in  the  manner 
of  her  two  men  defeated  the  plan ;  somehow  it  would  not 
do.  The  good,  sweet  woman  felt  herself  rebuked,  she 
could  not  have  said  how  or  why.  Sandra  thought  herself 
wiser;  as  usual  she  confided  her  views  privately  to  her 
grandmother. 

"  Men  don't  like  to  have  any  fuss  made  over  a  thing 
like  that,  I  don't  believe,"  she  remarked  sagely.  "  It 
always  seems  as  if  they  could  be  friends  and  could  do  a 
lot  of  things  for  each  other,  make  big  sacrifices  even, 
without  saying  a  word.  Women  want  to  tell  everybody; 
they  want  to  have  what  they  do  noticed.  They're  terribly 
petty." 

"  All  except  you  and  me,  eh  ?  "  said  the  old  lady  mis 
chievously. 

But  Sandra  would  not  joke.     "  You  know  it's  so,  grand- 


92  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

ma.  Of  course  it's  not  as  bad  as  it  used  to  be.  We've 
learned  a  lot,  and  we've  gotten  all  over  those  idiotic  ideas 
about  having  to  stay  at  home  and  do  fancy-work,  and  look 
as  if  we  never  ate  anything,  and  thinking  it  immodest  to 
mention  your  own  body,  or  know  anything  about  it. 
We've  gotten  all  over  that  — " 

"  We  certainly  have !  "  said  Mrs.  Alexander  with  whim 
sical  enthusiasm.  "  Nowadays  all  you  young  women  seem 
to  be  most  astonishingly  and  outspokenly  aware." 

"  Aware  ?     How  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  Just  aware"  her  grandmother  repeated  composedly. 
"  I  think  that  word  describes  your  generation  of  girls 
better  than  any  I  know." 

"  Well,  it's  more  sensible  than  not  knowing  anything," 
cried  Sandra  with  some  warmth,  glimpsing  the  other's 
meaning.  "  Or  pretending  not  to  know  anything.  That 
was  the  funniest  notion !  Pretending  to  be  ignorant  and 
helpless  because  it  was  pretty  and  womanly  and  all  that !  " 

"  Yes.  We  don't  pretend  to  be  helpless  any  more ;  we 
pretend  to  be  cultured,"  said  Mrs.  Boardman.  "  One 
can  hardly  get  along  without  pretending  a  little." 

Sandra  let  that  suggestion  pass,  perhaps  not  quite  un 
derstanding  it;  her  grandmother  not  infrequently  threw 
out  odd  little  dry  speeches  that  seemed  not  to  have  much 
meaning.  Besides,  the  girl  was  absorbed  in  her  specula 
tions  just  now ;  she  went  on  talking  earnestly. 

"  Do  you  know,  I  believe  there  always  have  been  women 
who  weren't  that  useless,  molly-coddle  kind ;  who  were  go- 
ahead  and  —  and  progressive,  you  know,  and  had  plenty 
of  sense  and  could  take  care  of  themselves,  even  in  the  old 
days.  There  always  must  have  been  some  women  like 
that  —  maybe  just  as  many  as  there  are  now,  only  they 
didn't  have  our  chances  to  show  it." 

"  Oh,  yes.     We  used  to  call  them  strong-minded,"  said 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  93 

Mrs.  Alexander,  with  an  innocence  which,  however,  by 
no  means  deceived  the  younger  woman.  "  I  have  a  dim 
general  impression  that  they  all  wanted  to  cut  their  hair 
short  and  wear  trousers  and  run  for  the  presidency  — " 

"  You  will  make  fun,"  said  Sandra  reproachfully ;  "  you 
know  that's  not  at  all  the  kind  of  person  I  meant.  Those 
women  were  just  freaks." 

"  Not  at  all,  my  dear.  They  were  the  straws  which 
show  which  way  the  wind  blows." 

"  Why,  you  don't  think  we'll  all  be  doing  like  that  after 
awhile?" 

"  Who  knows  ? "  said  the  old  lady  with  a  Gallic  move 
ment  of  her  still  shapely  shoulders,  a  Gallic  smile  charged 
with  amiable  cynicism,  liberality  and  .patience.  "  And 
why  not?  I  have  seen  so  many  complete  reversals  of 
popular  opinions  and  ideals  and  ways  of  thought  in  my 
time  —  so  many  social  superstitions  overthrown,  so  many 
others  built  up.  It  seems  scarcely  worth  while  to  question 
anything,  or  to  be  shocked  about  anything,  any  more." 

Sandra  contemplated  her  silently.  "  You're  wonder 
fully  modern,  grandma,"  she  said  after  a  while,  abruptly. 
"  Ever  so  much  more  so  than  mother,  and  yet  she's 
younger.  Mother  would  be  ready  to  fly  to  pieces  at  the 
idea  of  any  of  us  doing  anything  the  least  bit  out  of  the 
way  —  against  the  rules,  you  know.  She'd  die  rather 
than  break  them.  And  the  funny  thing  is  that  the  kind 
of  rules  they  are,  whether  good  ones  or  bad  ones,  doesn't 
make  any  difference  to  her!  If  it  was  in  the  rules  that 
a  lady  must  swear,  why,  mother  would  swrear  like  a  dray 
man,  and  would  be  after  me  to  make  me  swear,  too  —  !  " 

"  Oh,  come,  now,  Sandra  — " 

"  You  know  she  would,  grandma.  If  it's  '  the  thing/ 
it's  all  right  for  mother.  If  it's  '  done/  why,  it  might 
as  well  be  one  of  the  Ten  Commandments.  Well,  I  must 


94  THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY 

say,"  Sandra  interpolated  generously :  "  it's  great  to  have 
somebody  around  that  is  that  way,  because  they  always 
know  exactly  what  to  do,  no  matter  what  comes  up.  I 
mean  they  always  do  the  right  thing,  the  tactful  thing,  you 
know.  Mother  never  makes  a  mistake.  I  remember  my 
first  year  out,  it  was  perfectly  fine  to  have  mother  to  go 
to,  because  every  now  and  then  something  would  happen, 
and  I  wouldn't  know  quite  what  to  do,  and  mother  could 
always  tell  me.  She's  a  wonder,  that  way." 

If  Mrs.  Alexander  wanted  to  laugh  at  this  ingenuous 
tribute,  she  restrained  it  with  a  consideration  which  might 
of  itself  have  been  a  small  lesson  in  good  breeding. 
"  Your  mother  has  had  a  great  deal  of  social  experience," 
was  all  she  said. 

"Well,  so  have  you,  grandma.  You  never  make  any 
mistakes  either.  But  you  aren't  quite  so  —  well  —  hide 
bound,  you  know,  as  mother.  You  don't  mind  people 
breaking  loose  once  in  a  while." 

This  time  the  old  lady  did  laugh  outright.  "  Oh,  don't 
I  ?  If  you  will  just  define  '  breaking  loose ?  for  me  —  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  don't  mean  anything  like  running  off  from  your 
husband  or  any  low  business  like  that  —  all  in  the  papers 
and  everybody  talking ! "  said  Sandra,  a  little  out  of 
patience.  "  I  mean  —  what  is  it  ?  " 

"  Nothing.     Go  on." 

"  Oh,  I  thought  you  spoke.  What  I  mean  is  you  don't 
mind  a  person's  being  original,  or  doing  something  that 
isn't  '  done/  "  said  Sandra,  laying  rather  scornful  stress 
on  the  last  word.  "  For  instance,  that  time  I  had  a  Span 
ish  costume  and  danced  the  cachucha  at  one  of  those  old 
exhibitions,  don't  you  remember  my  getting  Mademoiselle 
to  paint  me  all  up,  and  how  mother  just  gave  it  to  me 
afterwards?  She  thought  the  paint  was  awful,  and  she 


THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY  95 

thought  the  way  I  danced  was  awful,  and  the  whole  thing 
was  awful!  You  didn't  inind  one  bit." 

"  Well  —  er  —  I  don't  know  —  I  probably  didn't  want 
to  say  anything —  '  Mrs.  Alexander  began,  somewhat 
taken  aback. 

"  Of  course  not.  You  realized  that  I  was  just  trying 
to  —  to  enter  into  the  character,  you  know.  I  wanted  to 
be  —  well  —  artistically  sincere,"  said  the  girl,  hesitating 
and  colouring.  "  I  know  that  sounds  ridiculously  affected 
and  —  and  high-brow,"  she  went  on  with  a  diffident  laugh. 
"  But  it  was  really  so.  Only  imagine  trying  to  make 
mother  see  that !  She  cant,  that's  all.  You're  different ; 
you  understand.  Nobody  ever  did  exactly  that  sort  of 
artistic  thing  when  you  were  young;  they  didn't  call 
dancing  one  of  the  arts  at  all,  I  suppose.  But  that  doesn't 
keep  you  from  thinking  about  it  in  a  modern  way,  the 
way  people  think  nowadays.  It's  splendid  to  be  so  large- 
minded  and  —  and  emancipated/' 

The  emancipation  was,  perhaps,  not  quite  so  complete 
as  Sandra  fancied.  Hearing  her,  Mrs.  Boardman  sat 
divided  between  amusement,  uneasiness,  a  sneaking  satis 
faction  in  the  girl's  verdict  on  herself  qualified  by  sym 
pathy  for  her  mother  thus  judged  and  dismissed  offhand. 
The  old  lady  was  acute  enough  to  recognize  every  one  of 
these  emotions,  and  surveyed  them  inwardly  with  caustic 
mirth.  She  found  herself  not  so  "  modern  "  but  that  these 
theories  and  this  "  artistic  "  patter  indefinably  disturbed 
her;  what  ideas  were  milling  around  in  the  child's  head? 
One  could  never  guess  what  young  people  might  be  up 
to  nowadays.  But  after  all,  the  world  was  theirs;  their 
lives  were  theirs ;  and  they  must  weather  through  by  them 
selves,  come  what,  come  may ! 


CHAPTEE  VII 

YOUNG  Everett  Boardman  did  not  at  once  display 
the  turn  for  affairs  possessed  by  his  great-grand 
father,  pioneering  old  Jacob,  or  by  his  own  father 
Richard;  even  had  he  been  stimulated  in  accordance  with 
the  latter's  whimsical  wish  by  falling  in  love  and  wanting 
to  get  married,  it  might  not  have  operated  to  make  a  keen 
business  man  out  of  him.  But  there  is  no  telling  for 
Everett  did  not  fall  in  love ;  he  worked  along  contentedly, 
doing  his  exact  share,  no  more  and  no  less,  as  regular 
in  his  habits  as  the  oldest  and  most  settled  man  in  the 
office,  from  whom,  however,  he  differed  conspicuously  by 
being  much  more  of  an  ornament.  Young  Boardman  was 
one  of  the  best  looking  and  the  best  dressed  young  fellows 
to  be  seen  on  "  the  Street "  !  he  had  very  pleasant  manners, 
plenty  of  fun,  a  manly  liking  for  sport,  an  invulnerable 
integrity  —  he  had,  in  short,  so  many  good  qualities  that 
it  was  impossible  to  believe  he  would  not  presently  develop 
one  or  two  more. 

"  Give  the  boy  a  chance.  He'll  find  himself  after  a 
while.  Of  course  he's  a  little  slow  and  backward  and 
lacks  push  and  initiative  and  doesn't  seem  to  know  what 
he's  here  for,  or  to  take  all  the  interest  he  ought  to;  but 
that's  natural,  he's  so  new  to  it.  I'd  just  as  lief  have  him 
that  way  as  like  some  of  these  fresh  lads  that  after  they've 
been  in  the  office  a  week,  come  breezing  around  telling 
you  how  to  run  the  business  and  just  where  you're  making 
mistakes  and  losing  money.  I've  seen  that  kind,  too," 
said  Mr.  Arnold,  good-naturedly.  He  became  very  fond 

of  the  young  man,  liking  him  for  his  good  looks,  his  defer- 

96 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  97, 

ence  to  his  elders,  his  decent  and  cleanly  character,  and 
finally,  or  perhaps  first  of  all  for  being  the  son  of  his 
father  for  whom  Mr.  Arnold  entertained  a  great  friend 
ship  and  respect.  "  Everett'll  come  out  all  right  as  soon 
as  he  gets  really  started.  It  seems  to  take  these  college- 
boys  longer  than  the  others.  They  have  to  find  out  that  all 
this  Greek  and  trigonometry  they've  been  stuffing  up  for 
four  years  isn't  going  to  get  'em  anything,  and  there  isn't 
any  professor  around  to  mark  their  papers  and  tell  them 
where  they  stand,  and  I  expect  they  feel  kind  of  surprised 
and  bothered,  and  don't  know  how  to  take  hold.  College 
education  is  a  good  thing,  of  course,  but  it  isn't  prac 
tical.  It  could  be  made  practical,  I  believe,  but  they'd 
have  to  run  the  colleges  along  other  lines  from  what  they 
do  now,"  said  Mr.  Arnold,  who  was  not  a  college-boy  him 
self —  far  from  it!  He  began  his  career  at  the  age  of 
fourteen  as  elevator-boy  in  the  old  Masonic  Temple 
Building,  and  had  pursued  it  with  energy  and  success  up 
to  the  present  time  unhampered  by  much  schooling  of  any 
kind,  except  that  bestowed  gratis  by  years  and  years,  ex 
perience  and  hard  work. 

Everett  liked  him,  too  —  liked  him  well  enough,  that 
is,  though  he  sometimes  wished  that  Mr.  Arnold  would 
be  more  careful  about  taking  off  his  hat  when  women 
came  into  the  office;  and  gave  the  family  at  home  an 
imitation  of  the  "  boss  "  getting  something  to  eat  at  a 
quick-lunch  counter  and  the  way  he  used  his  knife  and 
fork  that  sent  Mrs.  Richard  and  Sandra  into  fits  of 
laughter,  and  even  drew  an  involuntary  grin  from  Richard, 
who  disapproved  of  the  exhibition.  He  thought  the  head 
of  a  big  business  and  a  man  to  whom  Everett  was  per 
sonally  indebted  should  be  secure  from  this  sort  of  rid 
icule  ;  though  the  young  man's  humour  was  without  malice 
and  he  exercised  it  after  the  same  fashion  on  everybody, 


98  THE  BOAKDMAlsT  FAMILY 

high  or  low,  visiting  magnates,  his  brother  clerks,  those 
in  adjoining  offices,  the  girl  stenographers,  the  messenger- 
boys,  the  very  janitor  and  scrubwomen.  "  You  see  a 
funny  job-lot  of  people  in  business,"  he  reported,  wagging 
his  head.  "  I  don't  know  where  they  all  come  from.  You 
never  meet  them  anywhere  else.  You  can't  imagine  wnat 
their  homes  are  like.  Very  nice  respectable  people,  of 
course,  all  of  them/'  he  added  quickly  and  generously. 
"  And  by  the  way,"  said  Everett,  his  thoughts  evidently 
leading  him  in  a  natural  sequence  from  one  group  of 
"  funny  "  people  to  another  —  "  by  the  way,  whom  do 
you  think  I  ran  into  today,  Sandra  ?  Why,  Sam  Thatcher, 
of  all  men  in  the  world!  Kemember  Sam?  Big  boy 
with  red  hair  and  freckles.  They  used  to  live  in  our  old 
house." 

"  I  remember  him.  He's  Julia  Thatcher's  cousin," 
said  Sandra,  rather  shortly.  Something  in  Everett's 
manner  grated  on  her.  He  would  not  speak  of  Julia  in 
that  tone  as  if  she  belonged  to  the  job-lot  of  nonentities, 
she  thought  almost  resentfully,  and  brought  forward  the 
relationship  in  Sam's  defence,  as  it  were.  But  Everett 
only  laughed  and  said  that  was  so ;  he  had  forgotten  that ; 
he  wondered  what  Miss  Thatcher  thought  of  having  Sam 
for  a  relative;  they  were  such  different  sort  of  people. 
He  did  not  say  that  several  hundred  thousand  dollars  on 
the  George  Thatcher  side  accounted  for  some  of  the  differ 
ences,  because  that  idea  did  not  occur  to  him,  nor  to 
Sandra ;  it  was  not  in  the  Boardman  creed  to  regard  money 
as  capable  of  creating  differences.  He  went  on  describing 
his  late  encounter  with  interest  and  amusement. 

"  Sam's  with  the  Victorgraph  people.  He  goes  around 
selling  the  machines.  It's  a  mystery  to  me  how  anybody 
can  do  that  —  get  people  to  buy  things  of  you,  you  know," 
said  Everett  with  a  look  of  wonder  and  some  distaste. 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  99 

"  Talk  a  thing  up  and  brag  and  coax  and  palaver,  and  go 
through  all  those  huckstering  tricks  —  I'm  sure  /  never 
could.  But  Sam  seems  to  be  perfectly  happy  and  satis 
fied.  Talks  about  it  all  the  time!  Absolutely  absorbed 
in  selling  Victorgraphs  to  the  exclusion  of  every  other 
interest  —  though  he  did  ask  after  you,  Sandra.  He  said 
he'd  seen  you." 

"  Yes.  It  was  months  ago  —  last  spring  some  time  — 
I  forget  when,"  said  Sandra  carelessly,  though  perhaps 
her  carelessness  was  not  wholly  geunine.  "  Didn't  I  tell 
you  ?  I  suppose  I  thought  you  wouldn't  be  interested." 

"  Well,  I  rather  wish  you  had  said  something,  because 
it  was  a  little  embarrassing  for  a  minute  today  when  I 
saw  that  he  expected  me  to  know  all  about  him,  and  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  I  didn't  know  any  more  than  the  man  in 
the  moon.  However,  I  pretended,  of  course,"  said  Ev 
erett,  who  was  always  most  scrupulous  not  to  hurt  any 
body's  feelings.  "  You  knew  about  his  Victorgraphs 
then  ?  He  must  have  talked  about  them  to  you,  too.  He 
can't  keep  off  the  subject." 

"  Why,  yes,  a  little  —  but  I  thought  it  was  very  inter 
esting,"  Sandra  said,  again  on  the  defensive,  she  did  not 
know  why.  "  I  would  have  liked  to  hear  more.  He's 
been  to  some  such  queer  places." 

Everett  became  more  serious.  "  Yes,  it's  a  kind  of 
pity  that  such  opportunities  for  seeing  the  world  have  to 
be  wasted  on  a  fellow  like  that.  He  reminds  me  of  that 
old  story  about  the  woman  who  remembered  Kome  or 
Cairo  because  it  was  the  place  where  she  bought  the  silk 
stockings !  Sam  told  me  he  had  sold  twenty-four  Victor- 
graphs  in  Honolulu.  I  asked  him  if  he  had  seen  that 
wonderful  volcano  in  the  Hawaiian  islands,  and  he  said 
yes,  he'd  made  a  trip  to  it,  and  that  it  was  'just  like 
the  descriptions  you  read,  only  they  can't  tell  you  all,  ex- 


100  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

actly — '  those  are  his  words,"  and  here  Everett  threw 
back  his  head  and  laughed  with  thoroughgoing  enjoyment. 
"  The  next  thing  he  got  out  a  note-book  and  showed  me  a 
little  dictionary  of  Hawaiian  or  pidgin-English-French- 
native  words  and  phrases  he  had  collected  and  written 
down.  "  '  I  don't  like  this  interpreter  business/  "  Everett 
quoted,  mimicking  admirably.  "  '  You  don't  get  to  ?em, 
and  having  an  interpreter  all  the  time  adds  to  your  ex 
pense-account.  I've  made  up  my  mind  that  after  this 
I'll  always  know  a  little  of  the  language  of  every  country 
I  strike.  Why,  I  could  sell  a  machine  to  every  little 
brown  brother  in  the  Pacific  Islands  if  I  could  talk  to 
him,  and  I  will  yet  before  I'm  through  with  it.  You 
watch  me ! '  Think  of  him  with  his  red  head  inter 
viewing  a  cannibal  king  —  with  a  missionary  browning 
over  the  coals  for  dinner  —  while  the  Victorgraph  grinds 
out :  '  Ah  Don'  Wan'  To  See  Mali  Baby  Thrown  Down ! '  " 

Mr.  Boardman  laughed;  but  his  face  changed  as  he 
asked  Sam's  age,  and  heard  it  placed  at  a  scant  two  years 
or  so  in  advance  of  Everett's.  "  Well,  it's  not  a  bad  thing 
for  a  young  man  to  be  wrapped  up  in  his  work,"  he  said. 

"  Yes,  but  you  don't  want  him  to  talk  about  it  the  whole 
time,"  said  Everett  fastidiously.  "  Other  people  don't 
care  to  hear  about  it.  Ordinarily  that  sort  of  thing  is  in 
abysmally  bad  taste,  but  he  was  so  funny  —  unconsciously 
funny,  I  mean  —  that  you  didn't  mind  it  for  a  little 
while." 

"  I  thought  all  the  men  ever  talked  about  when  they 
were  together  was  business,"  said  his  mother;  and  some 
how  that  innocent  remark  ended  the  conversation  as  far 
as  concerned  Sam  Thatcher,  that  is,  though  it  was  uttered 
in  no  such  intention.  Everett,  after  a  minute,  began  to 
speak  of  something  else,  and  Sandra  joined  in,  glad  of 
the  change.  She  told  herself  frankly  that  she  liked  Sam 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

—  Mr.  Thatcher,  and  disliked  to  hear  him  made  fun  of ; 
Everett  made  him  seem  dull,  whereas  he  was  not  in  the 
least  dull;  and  he  did  not  talk  about  his  experiences  all 
the  time,  though  if  he  should  there  would  be  some  excuse, 
for  they  were  very  unusual  and  entertaining.  She  won 
dered,  perhaps  not  for  the  first  time,  why,  since  he  was 
so  lonesome  and  plainly  so  glad  to  see  her  that  day,  he 
had  not  made  some  effort  to  see  her  again?  It  is  easy 
enough  for  men  to  see  girls. 

By  a  coincidence,  the  above  great  fundamental  truth 
must  have  just  penetrated  to  the  intelligence  of  Mr.  Sam 
uel  Thatcher,  for  some  time  during  the  day,  Sandra  was 
called  to  the  telephone,  and  heard  and  knew  at  once  the 
young  fellow's  hearty  voice,  though  it  had  an  odd  ring 
of  shyness  and  deference  and  anxiety,  to  which  Sandra 
in  this  era  of  familiar  manners  was  sufficiently  unaccus 
tomed.  She  could  fancy  him  colouring  furiously  and 
standing  before  her  pleased  and  bravely  bashful  as  at  their 
drug-store  meeting.  He  wanted  to  know  with  over 
whelming  diffidence  if  she  remembered  him  (remembered 
Mm!),  and  being  assured  on  that  point,  if  there  was 
"  anything  on  "  for  that  night  ?  If  there  wasn't,  might 
he  come  out  ?  He  knew  of  course,  that  she  was  likely  to 
be  knee-deep  in  engagements  —  he  didn't  want  to  be  in 
the  way  —  the  trouble  was  he  only  had  a  short  time  at 
home  —  he  was  just  in  from  the  road,  and  would  have  to 
go  out  again  Sunday  —  to  the  Canal  Zone,  a  couple  of 
months'  trip  —  he  thought  he  would  like  to  see  her  this 
time,  if  possible,  before  he  left.  This  was  the  long-distance 
he  was  talking  to  her  over;  he  was  up  in  JefFersonville. 
If  not  tonight,  maybe  she  would  let  him  know  what  night 
this  week  she  would  be  at  home?  Sandra  assured  him 
again ;  there  was  nothing  on  for  that  night ;  Everett  had 
told  her  he  was  back  home;  she  heard  he  had  a  perfectly 


BOABDMAN  FAMILY 


wonderful  time  in  Hawaii.  Well,  yes,  it  was  some  trip  ; 
he  would  tell  her  about  it  when  he  saw  her  ;  he  —  and 
here  another  masculine  voice  intervened  with  sardonic 
amiability  advising  him  to  tell  it  to  her  later,  but  to  get 
off  the  line  now  !  "  You've  had  your  five  minutes,  honey- 
boy,"  it  remarked  ;  "  and  you  can  stick  around  tonight 
telling  her  till  the  milk-wagons  begin  to  run,  if  old  scout 
Pop  don't  object."  Sandra  slammed  the  instrument  on 
the  hook  and  jumped  up  with  a  red  face.  "  I  didn't  know 
we  had  been  talking  that  long  —  I  don't  believe  we  did  !  " 
she  thought  violently;  then  tried  to  figure  with  some 
uneasiness  —  in  spite  of  her  steady  championship  —  how 
he  would  look,  act,  be  dressed.  He  certainly  seemed  to 
be  different  from  most  of  the  other  men  she  knew.  Ev 
erett  was  right  about  that,  she  was  obliged  to  allow  un 
willingly. 

However,  when  the  Victorgraph  hero  rang  the  bell  and 
was  ushered  in  that  evening,  he  was  entirely  presentable 
in  any  company;  indeed  he  looked  pleasingly  big,  fresh, 
clean  and  strong,  Sandra  thought,  and  he  had  an  em 
inently  civilized  box  of  chocolates  under  one  arm.  He 
had  not  brought  any  Hawaiian  picture  post-cards,  or  ko 
daks  or  other  banal  trophies  of  adventure  —  he  was  too 
sophisticated  or  merely  too  sensible  for  that,  at  any  rate. 
Also  he  did  not  at  once  proceed  to  pour  out  the  tale  of 
his  commercial  schemes  and  successes,  although  to  be  sure 
he  was  with  no  great  difficulty  beguiled  into  talking  about 
himself  —  what  young  man  is  too  strong  for  that  tempta 
tion?  When  all  was  said,  Sam  did  not  seem  disposed  to 
take  himself  too  seriously  ;  Sandra  decided  that  his  humour 
was  not  so  unconscious  as  Everett  had  pronounced  it.  He 
perceived  the  grotesque  aspects  of  his  achievements  as 
clearly  and  laughed  at  them  with  as  keen  a  relish  as  any 
outsider;  yet  he  meant  to  succeed.  The  determination 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  103 

"  stuck  out  all  over  him  "  as  the  girl  later  reported  to  Mrs. 
Alexander;  she  wondered  at  and  admired  and  envied  that 
humorous  force,  that  easy,  unassuming  yet  resolute  con 
fidence  in  his  own  resources  and  his  ultimate  mastery  of 
circumstance. 

"  I  wish  I  was  a  man.  I'd  like  to  do  things  too,"  she 
said,  on  top  of  these  reflections,  in  sudden  restlessness. 
"  It  must  be  great." 

Sam  was  puzzled.  "  Do  things  ?  Why,  I  thought  you 
were  doing  something  right  along.  I  thought  girls  — 
your  kind  of  girl,  of  course  —  were  on  the  dead  jump 
every  minute.  Parties  and  —  and  dances,  you  know. 
My  little  cousin  Julia  is  the  busiest  ever." 

"  Oh,  yes,  but  that  gets  to  be  tiresome  after  a  while. 
There's  so  much  sameness.  Sometimes  we  get  very  ener 
getic  and  get  up  something  for  charity,  or  go  down  and 
serve  at  the  Woman's  Exchange,  or  at  the  Art  Students' 
League,  or  something  like  that.  I  have  myself  lots  of 
times,  but  it  doesn't  amount  to  anything;  you're  just 
doing  it  because  everybody  else  is  doing  it.  There  isn't 
anything  in  it.  I  believe  I'd  like  work  —  real  work,  the 
same  as  a  man's.  Make-your-living  work." 

"  Work  ?  You  ? "  said  Sam.  He  gazed  at  her  an 
instant  in  silence,  Sandra  meeting  his  eyes  unreservedly. 
Her  slim  figure  in  a  bright  coloured  dress  rested  among 
some  cushions  in  an  old  chair,  at  ease  yet  with  an  extra 
ordinary  effect  of  lightness ;  she  moved,  clasped  her  hands, 
or  swung  her  foot,  and  it  gave  the  impression  of  a  com 
mand  of  her  muscles  equally  sure  and  facile.  One  could 
not  imagine  that  delicate  grasp  fumbling,  that  springy 
step  at  fault.  She  work,  indeed !  As  well  harness  a 
race-horse  to  the  plough,  or  turn  a  fine  sword-blade  to 
chipping  kindlings,  was  what  Sam  thought,  but  had  the 
wisdom  not  to  say.  Coming  from  some  one  else  he  would 


104  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

receive  these  flowers  of  rhetoric  with  a  certain  distrust, 
and  so,  no  doubt,  would  she. 

"  Well,  I've  seen  something  of  women  in  business,"  he 
said  cautiously.  "  I  meet  them  every  once  in  a  while. 
They  aren't  exactly  your  style.  I  don't  believe  you'd  like 
the  life  much." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  mean  I  want  to  be  a  shop-girl,  or  a  trained 
nurse  or  anything  like  that,  though  of  course  that's 
work  —  " 

"  Yes,  it  is,"  said  Sam  soberly. 

"  I  meant  —  well,  I  don't  know  quite  what,"  the  girl 
confessed  with  a  rueful  smile.  "  Something  big  and  inde 
pendent,  I  suppose.  Bright  of  me,  isn't  it?  I  can't 
really  do  anything." 

"  Oh,  I  expect  you  could  if  you  tried,"  said  Sam. 
"  But  I  hope  you  won't  ever  have  to.  I  don't  like  it. 
It's  all  wrong  for  a  woman  to  get  out  in  the  world  and 
hustle  for  a  living.  If  they  fail,  they  worry  themselves 
to  death,  and  if  they  succeed  they  get  as  hard  as  nails. 
There's  my  sister  Kate.  She's  been  teaching  for  years, 
and  she's  always  made  a  good  salary,  and  lived  in  a  nice 
way,  and  had  about  as  good  a  time  as  anybody.  She's 
exceptionally  successful.  Now  if  she  had  been  a  man 
it  wouldn't  have  hurt  her,  or  changed  her  unless  for  the 
better ;  a  man  that  had  got  along  as  well  as  Kate  has  would 
probably  be  a  pretty  good  fellow.  But  she's  just  a  stony 
little  old  maid  —  it's  awful !  "  said  the  young  man  with 
so  much  horrified  pity  that  Sandra,  for  the  soul  of  her, 
could  not  keep  from  laughing.  "  Oh,  you  may  think  it's 
funny,"  he  added,  beginning  to  smile  himself ;  "  but  if 
you  could  be  with  her  once,  you'd  understand.  Even 
her  clothes  have  a  hard,  shiny,  keep-off-the-grass  sort  of 
look.  You  have  a  feeling  that  you  can't  make  a  dent  on 
her  anywhere.  It's  unnatural." 


THE  BOARDMAX  FAMILY  105 

Sandra    fell    back    in    fresh    merriment.     "  Why    her 

u 

clothes  haven't  got  anything  to  do  with  it !  " 

"  Yes,  they  have !  "  Sana  asseverated  stoutly.  "  She 
thinks  because  she  works  like  a  man,  she  ought  to  dress 
like  a  man.  She  might  just  as  well  have  nice  things  all 
soft  and  fluffy.  That's  the  way  women's  clothes  ought 
to  be." 

Sandra  sat  upright  among  her  cushions,  flushing 
slightly  as  she  realized  that  this  bit  of  description  came 
close  to  fitting  her  own  toilette  and  surroundings,  which 
moreover  as  was  evident  from  the  expression  of  his  honest 
blue  eyes  were  very  much  to  Mr.  Thatcher's  taste.  She 
was  about  to  point  out  that  softness  and  fluffiness  would 
be  misplaced  at  a  teacher's  desk,  or  in  an  oflice,  when  he 
spoke  again,  this  time  to  ask  irrelevantly  if  she  danced 
as  much  as  she  used  to? 

"  Oh,  yes.  They  generally  come  after  me  to  do  some 
stunt  like  that  at  entertainments  —  amateur  vaudeville 
and  things  like  that,  you  know.  Ever  so  many  of  the  girls 
are  taking  up  fancy  dancing  now,  though.  It's  getting 
to  be  a  craze." 

"  Every  time  you  move  you  make  me  think  of  how 
you  used  to  dance,"  said  Sam,  surveying  her  thought 
fully. 

"  You  used  to  dance  too." 

"  I  never  was  a  star,  though.  Nobody  ever  suggested 
that  I  could  make  a  fortune  on  the  stage.  But  I've  seen 
plenty  of  them  —  headliners,  too,  way  up  —  that  couldn't 
touch  you." 

Sandra  incontinently  bounced  up  and  flourished  him 
an  exaggerated  curtsey.  "  Kind  sir,  I  thank  you !  " 

The  young  man  began  to  laugh,  though  his  eyes  were 
full  of  a  serious  admiration.  "  There,  that's  just  what 
I  mean,"  he  declared ;  "  when  you  did  that,  you  were 


106  THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY 

just  like  some  kind  of  a  little  puff-ball  —  as  if  there  were 
no  weight  to  you  at  all !  " 

They  heard  Everett  whistling  up  the  front  steps  and 
his  key  in  the  door.  He  came  in  directly,  hearing  their 
voices,  and  greeted  Sam  warmly,  though  glancing  from 
one  to  the  other  in  a  faint  surprise,  instantly  sup 
pressed  with  his  careful  courtesy.  Sandra  had  not 
warned  the  family  of  the  impending  visit.  Why  should 
she,  indeed  ?  Young  men  callers  were  no  novelty. 
Yet  now  for  a  single  moment,  she  wished  uncomfortably 
that  she  had  mentioned  this  one.  Mr.  Thatcher  departed 
ere  long,  and  Everett,  having  closed  the  door  on  him, 
came  strolling  back  to  the  living-room  fire  with  his  hands 
in  his  pockets  and  an  amused  quirk  at  the  corners  of 
his  lips. 

"  Well,  well,  evening-clothes  and  a  flower  in  his  button 
hole.  Quite  doggish !  Can't  tell  him  anything  about 
the  proprieties,  can  you  ?  " 

"  You  have  on  evening-clothes  yourself,  Ev." 

"  So  I  have,  so  I  have !  "  said  Everett,  affecting  to  look 
himself  over,  and  shaking  his  head  as  if  disheartened 
by  the  spectacle.  "  I  don't  come  up  to  his  level,  though," 
he  sighed  in  defeat  and  resignation. 

"  I  don't  see  why  you're  so  down  on  Sam  Thatcher  — 
Mr.  Thatcher !  "  said  his  sister  almost  resentfully. 

"Why,  I'm  not  down  on  him,  San.  I  only  think  he's 
funny.  He  seemed  funnier  than  ever  tonight  all  dressed 
up  and  doing  society.  It  doesn't  suit  him.  You  have 
to  be  born  to  it,  you  have  to  be  used  to  it  all  your  life 
from  the  beginning,"  said  Everett,  reasonably.  There 
could  be  no  doubt  that  he  himself  had  been  "  used  to  it 
all  his  life  from  the  beginning,"  even  the  most  careless 
observer  would  have  known  that. 


CHAPTEE  VIII 

YOUNG  Thatcher,  having  made  a  fairly  promising 
start,  continued  to  "  do  society "  as  exemplified 
by  attentions  to  Miss  Boardman  as  persistently  as  his 
lengthening  and  far-flung  absences  would  allow.  During 
the  brief  intervals  at  home,  he  was  for  ever  taking  her 
to  the  theatre,  to  the  ball-game,  to  the  automobile-races, 
to  the  Horse-Show;  he  was  lavish  in  flowers  and  candies; 
she  was  the  first  person  he  called  up  on  reaching  town, 
and  the  last  of  whom  he  took  leave;  and  while  away, 
lest  she  forget,  he  wrote  her  surprisingly  entertaining 
letters  with  descriptions  of  queer  scenes  and  encounters 
interspersed  with  close  and  good-humoured  comment  on 
the  world  as  he  found  it  that  made  very  acceptable  read 
ing.  Sandra  showed  some  of  them  to  her  grandmother. 
Inevitably  rumour  began  to  be  busy  with  their  two  names, 
and,  as  usual,  met  with  all  kinds  of  receptions,  unexpect 
edly  warm  and  unexpectedly  cool.  For  example  Miss 
Susie  Thatcher,  contrary  to  what  might  have  been  looked 
for,  when  sundry  friends  benevolently  undertook  to  en 
lighten  her,  waved  the  matter  aside  without  the  smallest 
show  of  jealousy,  philosophical  beyond  belief! 

"  O,  I  know  all  about  Sam  courting  the  Boardman 
girl,"  she  said.  "  I  guess  she's  a  right  nice  girl,  she  was 
real  cute  when  she  was  little,  along  about  ten  or  eleven 
years  old,  coming  to  dancing-school.  I  used  to  see  con 
siderable  of  her  then,  not  so  much  since  she  grew  up,  of 
course.  She's  a  society  girl,  and  I'm  old  enough  to  be 
her  mother  anyway.  But  she  comes  of  nice  folks. 

107 


108  THE  BOAKDMAN"  FAMILY 

Father  liked  Mr.  Boardnian.  If  Sam's  taken  a  notion 
to  her,  I  don't  see  why  it  shouldn't  be  all  right.  I'm 
not  crazy  to  see  him  married,  but  my  goody,  I  can't 
expect  him  to  sit  around  with  an  old  maid  sister  all  his 
natural  life!  Suppose  he  came  bringing  home  a  some 
body  from  Korea  or  Patagonia  or  any  of  those  outlandish 
places  he  goes  to !  It  wouldn't  make  any  difference  how 
I  felt,  I  wouldn't  say  anything.  I'd  treat  her  just  as 
nice  as  I  knew  how.  But  if  it's  going  to  be  one  of  our 
own  home  girls,  I'm  just  that  much  better  pleased." 

Mrs.  George  Thatcher  —  but  it  was  never  possible 
to  say  just  what  Mrs.  George  Thatcher  thought;  she  did 
not  permit  herself  much  leeway  in  the  expression  of  feel 
ings  or  enthusiasms,  and  besides  in  society  one  does  not 
become  excited  over  anything,  certainly  not  over  the 
prospect  of  a  distant  alliance  with  —  ahem !  —  another 
old  and  elevated  family.  So  Mrs.  George  only  smiled  dis 
creetly  when  the  subject  came  up ;  it  might  be  true  —  oh, 
no,  she  did  not  know  anything  positive  about  it  —  Miss 
Boardman  was  a  charming  girl  —  Mr.  Thatcher's  nephew 
a  very  nice,  manly  young  fellow  —  Julia  was  on  tiptoe 
with  suspense!  And  so  on,  ending  with  a  little  laugh 
which  dismissed  the  matter.  However,  she  asked  them 
both  to  her  dinner  preceding  the  Holiday  Ball,  though 
she  had  taken  scarcely  any  notice  of  Mr.  Thatcher's  manly 
young  nephew  for  years,  and  had  been  known  to  intimate 
tactfully  that  Sandra  Boardman's  set  of  girls  were  really 
a  little  too  old  for  Julia ;  and  they  went  to  the  dinner  and 
to  the  Ball  afterwards  and  had  a  memorable  evening. 
Mrs.  George  was  the  most  agreeable  of  chaperons  and 
deservedly  popular  with  the  young  people. 

Nobody  would  ever  know  what  were  Mrs.  Alexander 
Boardman's  views  either.  She  displayed  none  of  the 
curiosity  or  of  the  garrulity  of  old  age,  and  could  have 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  109 

been  trusted  with  any  secret.  Mrs.  Richard,  of  course, 
would  have  sliced  off  her  tongue,  she  would  have  perished 
where  she  stood  rather  than  betray  any  suspicion  of  what 
was  going  forward.  She  was  a.  good  woman,  devoted  to 
her  daughter,  and  as  far  from  being  a  snob  as  from  being 
a  money -worshipper;  nevertheless  it  was  at  about  this  time 
that  she  began  to  speak  of  twenty-four  or  -five  as  the  suit 
able  and  sensible  age  for  a  girl  to  be  married  (she  used  to 
favour  twenty-one !)  and  to  point  out  that  class  distinctions 
in  our  democratic  country  and  in  this  day  of  lightning 
mutations  were  absurd;  it  made  no  difference  of  what 
humble  stock  a  person  came,  it  was  only  he  himself  that 
counted  —  all  of  which  was  so  true  that  no  one  stopped  to 
remark  what  revolutionary  doctrine  it  was  for  Mrs.  Rich 
ard  Chase  Boardman,  who  had  been  an  Everett,  to  be 
promulgating!  As  for  Richard,  he  may  have  been  too 
deeply  engrossed  in  business  for  the  gossip  to  have  reached 
him;  very  likely  he  would  have  pooh-pooh'd  it  after  the 
ridiculous  and  pathetic  fashion  of  fathers,  on  the  ground 
that  Sandra  and  the  Thatcher  boy  were  both  too  young  to 
be  dreaming  of  marriage ;  wasn't  it  but  yesterday  that  she 
was  running  around  in  socks  with  her  head  of  black  hair 
bobbed  off  like  a  small  black  silk  tassel  ?  Married  —  non 
sense  !  Poor  Richard !  Everett  supported  his  father, 
however,  by  pooh-poohing  the  idea  too,  though  for  a  dif 
ferent  reason. 

"  No  doubt  that  Thatcher's  in  earnest,"  he  said  to  his 
mother  privately.  "  He  shows  all  the  signs.  But  San 
will  never  take  him  in  the  world!  " 

"  Don't  you  think  so  ?  "  asked  the  lady  anxiously. 

Everett  made  a  grimace.  "  Oh,  never !  She's  just 
having  a  good  time,  the  way  girls  do  sometimes.  I  don't 
know  that  it's  altogether  fair  to  him  —  I'd  rather  Sandra 
didn't  encourage  him.  She  oughtn't  to  have  let  him  get 


110  THE  BOARDMAJST  FAMILY 

so  far,  but  I  daresay  it  happened  so  gradually  she  didn't 
realize  it,"  the  young  man  said,  criticizing  reluctantly  and 
humanely  as  was  his  wont.  "  But  you  can't  say  anything 
to  her.  You  can't  stop  it  now.  Our  friend  Samuel  will 
have  to  stand  up  and  take  his  medicine,  I'm  afraid." 

"  That's  a  pity.  He  —  he  seems  to  be  very  nice." 
Mrs.  Richard  murmured  in  a  troubled  and  regretful  voice. 
"  Somebody  was  saying  the  other  day  that  he  was  quite 
a  —  a  rising  young  man.  Bright  and  successful,  I  think 
they  said.  I  —  I  suppose  he  makes  money,  you  know," 
she  hinted  guiltily. 

"  I  shouldn't  wonder.  He's  that  kind.  Probably 
thinks  money  is  the  biggest  thing  in  the  world !  "  Everett 
said  with  contempt.  "  Don't  you  worry  though,  Mother. 
He's  impossible,  and  Sandra  knows  it.  She'll  turn  him 
down." 

"  Oh,  yes,  of  course.  I'm  not  worrying,"  said  his 
mother  —  in  spite  of  which  assuring  words,  poor  Mrs. 
Lucy's  countenance  took  on  a  very  downcast  and  disap 
pointed  look,  as  soon  as  her  son's  back  was  turned. 

Everett  was  right  in  one  respect,  at  least ;  whether  as  re 
garded  Sandra,  who  can  tell  ?  Perhaps  not  even  Sandra 
herself.  But  Sam  was  in  earnest.  The  straightforward 
young  fellow  could  not  conceal  it ;  he  scarcely  tried,  nor 
had  he  any  notion  of  the  excuses,  apologies  and  explana 
tions  Mrs.  Richard  made  for  him  in  the  character  of  her 
daughter's  suitor.  Sam  was  too  kind-hearted  and  rather 
too  shrewd  to  take  offence  at  her,  had  he  known ;  he  would 
merely  have  thought  her  foolish  and  a  little  funny.  What 
if  Sandra  was  a  Boardman  with  a  bunch  of  old  grand 
fathers  and  grandmothers  going  back  to  the  year  One? 
What  earthly  difference  did  that  make?  They  had 
nothing  to  do  with  her  or  him.  He  thought  she  was  the 
daintiest  and  dearest  girl  he  had  ever  known;  take  her 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  111 

any  way  you  chose,  watch,  her  dance,  listen  to  her  talk, 
you  would  have  to  acknowledge  that  there  was  nobody 
like  her,  nobody  who  approached  her.  She  could  say  the 
brightest  things,  and  do  so  much  on  such  different  lines 
and  do  it  all  so  well;  and  with  it  all  was  not  a  bit  vain, 
but  just  as  sweet  and  frank  and  full  of  fun  and  —  and  — 
Sam  exhausted  his  adjectives.  He  was  dead  in  love,  the 
young  man  said  to  himself,  reddening,  with  a  half  laugh ; 
he  was  probably  behaving  like  an  absolute  fool,  but  who 
cares,  he  asked  defiantly.  It  was  nothing  to  be  ashamed 
of;  if  she  liked  him  well  enough,  why  shouldn't  they 
get  married?  He  could  take  care  of  her,  that  was  one 
certain  thing;  he  wouldn't  think  of  asking  her  otherwise. 
You  had  to  have  money  to  get  married  nowadays;  this 
love-in-a-cottage  business  didn't  go  any  more.  That  was 
right,  too ;  that  was  common-sense.  Well,  he  made  plenty 
for  two  people  to  live  on  —  and  maybe  one  or  two  more, 
he  thought,  reddening  again,  all  to  himself.  Live  well, 
too;  he  could  give  Sandra  anything  her  father  was  able 
to  give  her  —  and  here  Sam  glanced  aside  from  his  own 
affairs  long  enough  to  wonder  why  Mr.  Boardman  didn't 
retire.  He  looked  ready  to,  and  he  must  have  got  enough 
by  this  time.  Some  men  keep  on  and  die  in  the  harness, 
though,  and  that  might  be  the  better  way.  "At  any 
rate,  by  the  time  I  get  to  his  age  I  mean  to  be  fixed  so 
I  won'4  have  to  worry,"  Samuel  told  himself  with  an 
arrogance  which  he  tempered  the  next  moment  by  adding 
prudently :  "  if  my  luck  holds  out."  He  did  not  feel 
much  afraid  of  announcing  his  candidacy  for  membership 
in  the  family  to  Sandra's  father.  "  I'll  bet  my  bank- 
account's  as  big  as  his  this  minute !  "  he  thought,  revert 
ing  to  the  main  issue. 

He  spent  a  good  deal  of  time  trying  to  make  up  his 
mind  what  he  would  say  to  her,  how  he  would  go  about 


112  THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY 

offering  himself.  Once  lie  tried  to  write,  but  that  was 
so  desperate  a  failure  that  after  a  dozen  beginnings,  Sam 
threw  all  the  scrawled  papers  into  the  trash-basket,  dis 
gusted.  He  was  in  San  Francisco  at  the  moment,  very 
lonely  in  the  big  hotel;  the  firm  were  going  to  send  him 
to  Europe  next,  he  knew ;  that  would  make  a  nice  wedding- 
trip  ;  neither  of  them  had  ever  been  over  there.  If  Sandra 
said  yes  —  !  Maybe  they'd  want  him  to  start  right  away, 
though,  and  girls  always  had  to  have  a  lot  of  things,  new 
clothes  and  all  that.  Well,  she  could  get  them  over  there 
—  in  Paris,  by  George !  She'd  like  that.  They  would 
go  to  the  Opera,  and  to  all  those  queer  restaurants  and 
places  you  read  about  in  the  novels,  and  to  the  summer- 
resorts  on  the  coast  of  Normandy  or  wherever  they  were, 
and  to  that  gambling-place,  Monte  Carlo.  They'd  put  in 
a  good  time,  Sandra  and  he !  The  gleaming  prospect  en 
livened  the  rest  of  his  stay,  and  he  continued  to  plan 
about  it  in  a  happy  and  hopeful  excitement  all  the  way 
back,  as  his  sleeper  climbed  the  Sierras,  climbed  the  Eock- 
ies,  rumbled  across  the  continent  towards  Denver,  Chicago, 
Home. 

Well,  man  proposes!  Sam  was  only  one  of  hundreds 
of  young  fellows  all  over  the  country  who  were  meditating 
the  same  project;  nine-tenths  of  them  probably  carried 
it  out  and  were  married  and  lived  happily  ever  after. 
It  seems  hard  that  he  should  not  have  been  of  their  number. 
For  Sandra  might  have  said  yes ;  the  family  could  scarcely 
have  raised  any  serious  objection ;  Society  would  have  been 
ready  with  congratulations,  candlesticks,  silver  salad- 
bowls,  bibelots  without  end;  this  chapter  would  have 
wound  up  with  the  famous  strains  from  Lohengrin  in  a 
mist  of  frock-coats,  festive  hats,  smilax  and  bride-roses, 
champagne  and  rice  —  all  this  might  have  been  had  not 
an  unreasonable  fate  ruled  otherwise.  Unconscious  that 


THE  BOAKDMAIST  FAMILY  113 

it  was  dogging  or  lying  in  wait  fur  him,  Samuel  reached 
home  late  one  night  —  there  was  a  hi>ty  cold  luncheon 
on  the  table,  and  {Susie  was  sitting  up  for  him,  in  a  kimono 
with  her  hair  in  curlers,  and  the  telegram  announcing  his 
coming  clutched  in  her  hand  as  it  had  been  ever  since  its 
arrival  —  and  the  next  day  he  arose  and  went  down  to 
Victorgraph  headquarters,  and  held  a  long  consultation 
with  his  superiors  in  the  inner  office;  and  later  declining 
an  invitation  to  the  manager's  club,  started  off  for  the 
Woman's  Exchange,  a  choice  which  moved  his  acquaint 
ances  in  the  salesroom  to  wonder  and  some  mild  ribaldry. 
They  warned  him  against  corrupt  associations  and  excess 
in  eating,  wanted  to  know  if  he  was  celebrating  on  account 
of  his  return,  if  he  had  gone  on  the  water-wagon,  etc. 
"Why,  I  like  the  Exchange  Tea-Room  first-rate,  that's 
why  I  go,"  said  Sam,  defending  himself  as  best  he  might. 
"  They  have  nice  home-cooking,  you  know,  chicken- 
pies  —  He  escaped,  pursued  by  the  penetrating  remark 
that  it  might  be  chicken  he  was  after,  but  not  in  pies, 
which  was  a  little  too  near  the  truth  to  suit  the  gentleman. 
The  Exchange  was  lodged  upstairs  over  a  row  of  small 
shops  built  along  the  street  on  what  had  once  been  the 
esplanade  in  front  of  the  Old  Church  of  Our  Saviour. 
This  space  had  become  too  valuable  there  in  the  middle 
of  the  business  district  to  be  left  unoccupied  and  unpro 
ductive;  but  the  architects  with  a  fine  feeling  both 
aesthetic  and  reverent  contrived  to  render  the  money-chang 
ers  on  the  steps  of  the  temple  as  inoffensive  as  possible, 
what  with  decorative  gables,  casement-windows,  and  a 
grave  arched  entrance  to  the  church  itself.  Miner  trades 
men,  a  jeweller,  a  florist,  a  stationer  and  so  on  had  the 
shops  along  the  sidewalk,  overhead  the  Exchange  set  out 
its  tables  in  three  or  four  low-ceil inged  rooms  of 
fascinatingly  irregular  shape  with  alcoves  and  bay- 


114  THE  BOAKDMAST  FAMILY 

windows  and  snug  little  corners  here  and  there,  which 
caused  many  people  to  proclaim  it  the  quaintest  and  most 
attractive  tea-room  in  town.  Moreover,  it  was  a  place 
where  you  saw  everybody  you  knew;  it  was  like  going 
to  an  afternoon  reception ;  the  lady  patronesses  took  turns 
at  superintending  for  a  week ;  there  were  always  charming 
and  novel  trifles  to  buy,  and  one  had  the  sensation  of  help 
ing  some  poor  and  deserving  person,  more  than  likely  a 
gentlewoman  whom  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  help 
any  other  way. 

None  of  these  arguments  had  any  weight  with  young 
Mr.  Thatcher,  however ;  he  was  not  going  to  the  Exchange 
because  it  was  picturesque  or  fashionable  or  philanthropic 
—  not  he !  The  hypocrite  did  not  even  care  a  rap  for 
the  home-cooking;  if  taste  in  eating  were  to  be  consulted 
Sam  would  much  have  preferred  a  glass  of  beer  and  a 
huge,  half-raw  beefsteak  Beamaise  at  the  Cafe  Metropole. 
He  had  other  and  very  different  reasons  for  patronizing 
the  Exchange,  and  then  too  the  same  inexorable  fate  may 
have  helped  him  to  the  decision  —  who  knows  ?  He 
walked  up  the  stairs  —  casting  a  glance  on  the  way  at  the 
jeweller's  window  where  there  was  a  blazing  big  solitaire 
diamond  which  would  have  looked  well  on  a  hand  he  knew 
of  —  and  ajb  the  top,  entering  the  tea-room,  ran  into  not 
the  light  slight  figure  he  was  looking  out  for,  with  the 
trim  skirts  and  shirtwaist  and  the  smartly  twisted  black 
hair  —  alack,  no !  Instead,  it  was  somebody  weighing 
upwards  of  a  hundred  pounds  more  and  in  trousers  to  boot, 
namely:  his  uncle  George! 

"  Hello,  Sam !  "  said  this  one,  cordially.  "  Going  "West, 
I  hear.  Hey  ?  What,  you've  been  —  been  and  come 
back  ?  Well,  I  can't  keep  track  of  you  any  more.  Here's 
a  table,  sit  down  here.  Let's  see  what  they've  got  that's 
good  today."  He  fixed  the  eyeglasses  on  his  big,  strong 


THE  BOAEDMAJST  FAMILY  115 

nose,  and  surveyed  the  card  with  an  expression  which 
moved  Sam  to  inquire  if  he  came  there  often? 

"  Well,  between  ourselves,  not  any  oftener  than  I  can 
help,"  said  George,  dropping  his  voice  and  glasses  at  the 
same  time  as  he  leaned  across  the  table  with  a  look  of 
humorous  secrecy.  "  I  have  to,  once  in  a  while,  to  please 
your  Aunt  Mattie,  you  know.  She's  interested  in  this 
thing  —  all  the  ladies  are.  They  all  come  down  here  and 
help  run  it.  They  even  have  the  girls  helping  too,  behind 
the  counters,  when  they  get  into  a  rush." 

"  Do  they  ?  "  said  Sam  in  accents  of  vast  surprise,  the 
while  his  gaze  roamed  disappointedly  about  the  place. 
"You  don't  say  so!" 

"  Sure.  Julia's  done  it.  They  don't  wait  on  the  tables, 
of  course,  but  just  over  there  where  they  sell  the  crochet- 
work  and  fancy  stuff.  Take  a  chicken-pie,  Sam,  that's 
about  as  good  as  anything  they  have.  Believe  I'll  have  a 
tumbler  of  buttermilk  — " 

"  Is  Julia  here  today  ?  They  seem  to  be  pretty  busy," 
Sam  asked  innocently.  He  had  understood  Sandra  to 
say  in  her  last  letter  that  she  might  have  to  officiate  at 
about  this  time ;  but  she  was  nowhere  to  be  seen,  although 
their  table,  backed  into  the  corner  between  a  pillar  and 
a  hatrack  commanded  almost  all  of  the  room.  He  would 
telephone  her  after  lunch  and  go  out  to  the  house  tonight ; 
but  if  there  was  a  chance  of  seeing  her  in  the  meantime, 
he  didn't  want  to  miss  it. 

"  Why,  yes,  Julia  was  coming  down,  and  then  she  said 
something  about  something  else  having  turned  up  —  I 
don't  remember  what  it  was  now.  She  was  going  to  get 
Miss  Boardman  or  somebody  to  take  her  place,  that's  the 
last  I  heard,"  said  Mr.  Thatcher,  callously  scoring  down 
chicken-pie,  buttermilk,  hot  rolls,  and  apple  meringue  on 
the  order-pad,  just  as  if  he  had  not  that  instant  breathed 


116  THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY 

the  most  wonderful  name  on  earth.  "  Good  trip,  Sam  \ 
You  ought  to  be  getting  to  be  quite  a  salesman  by  this 
time." 

"  I'm  pretty  fair,"  said  Sam  with  becoming  modesty. 
"  The  machines  sell  themselves  really.  Well,  I'd  like  to 
have  seen  Julia.  But  Miss  Boardman  doesn't  seem  to  be 
here  either." 

Mr.  Thatcher  looked  around.  "  No.  Great  business, 
hey  ?  "  said  he  with  a  grunt  of  good-natured  and  indulgent 
sarcasm.  "  These  girls  !  Dependable,  aren't  they  ?  It's 
lucky  they  aren't  working  for  their  living."  And  then, 
following  up  some  subconscious  connection  of  ideas,  he 
added  casually :  "  There's  a  man  that's  gone  back  a  lot 
these  last  few  years  —  .Dick  Boardman." 

"  Hey  ?  "said  Sam,  a  little  startled.     "  Gone  back  how  ?  " 

"  Why,  lost  his  grip,  you  know.  That  happens  to  men 
sometimes,  when  they  get  a  little  past  their  prime,"  ex 
plained  Mr.  Thatcher,  forgetting  that  he  himself  was  of 
Dick  Boardman's  generation.  "  Oh,  yes  he's  not  the  man 
he  was.  It's  quite  noticeable  at  times.  Not  that  he's 
failed,  of  course;  a  man  don't  fail  as  early  as  sixty,  un 
less  his  health  is  bad,  and  I  don't  think  anything's  the 
matter  with  Boardman  that  way.  He's  just  got  slow, 
and  everything  seems  to  be  terribly  hard  work  for  him. 
You  go  to  him  and  try  to  get  him  to  go  into  anything,  or 
to  do  anything,  and  you'll  find  he  can't;  he  can't  get 
started  somehow.  He'll  put  you  off  —  next  month  — 
next  year  —  that  sort  of  talk.  That's  a  sure  sign.  An 
active  man  with  all  his  faculties  in  good  working  order 
don't  put  things  off.  He  knows  that  anything  he  can  do 
next  year  he  can  do  this  year." 

Sam  was  struck  by  this  aphorism.  "That's  so! 
That's  one  of  the  first  things  you  have  to  learn,"  he  said, 
with  the  conviction  of  experience. 


THE  LOAKmiAX    FAMILY  117 

"  Yeah.  And  when  you  let  yo,  as  I  say,  that's  a  sure 
sign.  That's  what  makes  ine  think  he's  done.  He's 
through,  I  guess.  It's  a  pity.  1  hate  to  see  as  good  a 
man  as  Eoardman's  been  go  like  that,"  said  George 
Thatcher,  peppering  and  salting  and  beginning  to  eat  with 
an  appetite  not  at  all  impaired  by  his  philosophical  re 
grets;  the  ranks  were  for  ever  thinning  and  closing  up 
again,  how  often  in  twenty-five  years  of  business  life 
had  he  beheld  that  spectacle !  "  They  all  know  it  in  his 
office  —  they  don't  talk  about  it,  of  course,  but  they  know 
it." 

"  Well,  now,  I  never  noticed  anything.  I've  never  tried 
to  do  any  business  with  Mr.  Boardman,  though,"  said 
Sam  concerned. 

"  Oh,  there's  nothing  wrong  with  him.  I  didn't  mean 
to  give  you  that  impression,"  said  his  uncle  hastily.  "  It's 
only  that  he's  not  like  he  used  to  be  —  hasn't  got  the  life 
and  energy.  No  get  up,  no  push,  no  snap  to  him  any 
more.  That'g  all  I  meant." 

"  He  doesn't  have  to  work  anyhow,  I  expect.  He  must 
have  enough  to  quit  on." 

"  Nobody's  got  enough  to  quit  nowadays,"  said  the 
older  man  sententiously.  "  Say  you  do  make  some  money 
—  those  things  are  always  exaggerated,  and  everybody 
always  supposes  a  man  has  a  great  deal  more  than  he's 
really  got  —  but  say  you  do  make  money,  you  never  know 
where  you  are  or  who's  going  to  take  a  crack  at  you  next. 
The  cost  of  living  going  up  steadily,  and  a  pack  of  damn 
fools  tinkering  with  the  laws  all  the  time;  I  tell  you 
you  can't  afford  to  quit.  I  doubt  if  Boardman  can  any 
how.  He's  alwnys  made  a  good  income  probably,  but  he 
can't  have  been  able  to  save  very  much  with  that  expensive 
family  —  that  is  —  urn  -  Mr.  Thatcher  interrupted 
himself  as  memory  nudged  him;  Mattie  had  said  some- 


118  THE  BOAEDMAIST  FAMILY 

thing  about  Sam  and  the  Boardman  girl !  "  He's  a  very 
fine  man  still  —  nice  people  all  the  Boardmans !  "  he 
wound  up  rather  lamely. 

They  went  on  talking  about  other  things;  two  or  three 
acquaintances  drifted  in;  the  place  was  quite  full  by  the 
time  they  got  up  to  go.  And  then  Sam,  having  resigned 
himself  to  the  fact  that  Sandra  was  not  there  and  not 
coming,  was  on  his  way  to  ask  the  whereabouts  of  the 
telephone-booth,  when  around  the  corner  from  the  very 
table  where  he  and  his  uncle  had  lately  been  seated,  he 
came  upon  her ! 

She  was  in  a  chair  by  one  of  the  tables  and  must  have 
been  having  luncheon  herself,  for  the  dishes,  scarcely 
touched,  were  still  before  her;  she  sat  staring  at  them 
with  a  listless  and  absent  air  very  unusual  with  her, 
Sam  noticed  in  the  half-second  before  she  sprang  up  and 
greeted  him.  So  he  was  back!  Four  weeks!  Had  it 
been  a  perfectly  grand  trip  ?  Well,  of  course,  he  had  been 
there  before,  still  it  must  always  be  interesting.  Yes, 
she  had  got  his  last  letter,  but  she  wasn't  certain  about 
the  day  —  what  ?  She  had  said  she  might  be  down  here 
at  the  Exchange?  The  idea  of  his  remembering  that! 
She  had  just  mentioned  it,  she  didn't  dream  he  would 
come  —  Sandra  grew  bright  pink  under  his  eyes,  and 
laughed  and  rattled  along  in  a  style  not  natural  to  her. 
Yes,  she  had  been  there  quite  a  while,  sitting  right  there, 
it  was  funny  they  hadn't  seen  each  other  sooner.  Wasn't 
that  his  uncle  that  just  went  out  ?  Tonight  ?  Why,  of 
course !  She  flashed  off  to  her  station  behind  the  counters, 
leaving  Sam  elate  yet  disturbed.  In  spite  of  her  insistent 
gaiety,  he  was  assailed  by  dim  fears  that  all  was  not 
right;  she  might  not  be  well,  she  had  looked  so  tired  and 
out  of  spirits  just  now  when  she  was  sitting  there  alone, 
thinking  nobody  saw  her. 


CHAPTEE  IX 

MOST  men,  by  the  time  they  have  arrived  at  mature 
years,  are  willing  to  accept  the  fact  that  nearly  all 
their  gods  —  and  goddesses !  —  have  clay  feet.  When 
all's  said,  it  is  not  an  uncomfortable  discovery;  in  my 
heart  of  hearts  I  do  not  want  anybody,  not  even  my  par 
ticular  deity  much  less  my  next-door  neighbour,  to  be  per 
fect  ;  his  imperfections  somehow  give  me  a  little  room  for 
my  own.  But,  as  has  been  hinted,  this  philosophical 
spirit  is,  generally  speaking,  masculine;  the  ladies  will 
be  for  ever  looking  for  perfection  or  thinking  they  have 
found  it;  and  when  the  average  father,  son,  brother  or 
husband  takes  a  sober  survey  of  himself  upon  the  pedestal 
where  his  womenkind  have  placed  him,  it  must  be  with 
an  extraordinary  hodge-podge  of  irritation,  tenderness, 
amusement  and  some  shame.  There  is  no  telling  what 
would  be  his  sensations  on  finding  his  dummy  tumbled 
down,  because  he  never  knows  when  that  catastrophe  oc 
curs;  the  women  guard  it  from  him  as  carefully  as  they 
guard  it  from  the  outside  public.  For  that  matter,  given 
half  an  excuse,  they  will  try  desperately  to  hide  the 
damage  from  themselves. 

So  now  Sandra,  a  tragi-comic  figure,  sat  before  the 
fragments  of  the  super-father  she  had  been  brought  up 
to  believe  in,  making  futile  efforts  to  patch  him  together 
and  replace  him  above  the  altar.  It  does  not  need  to  be 
told  that  she  had  overheard  every  word  of  Mr.  Thatcher's ; 
in  fact,  she  had  been  sitting  there  in  unintentional  con- 

119 


120  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

cealment  behind  the  hats  and  overcoats  for  some  minutes 
before  the  two  gentlemen  came  in.  Her  own  name  was 
spoken;  and  before  she  could  move  or  announce  herself, 
the  mischief  was  done.  Down  crashed  poor  Eichard 
Boardman  from  his  high  niche;  her  father,  the  family 
oracle,  the  ultimate  power,  the  source  of  wisdom  and 
dollars,  gave  place  in  a  twinkling  as  though  honest  George 
had  uttered  some  diabolical  spell  instead  of  his  not 
unkind  statements  to  a  man  aging  bodily  and  mentally 
whose  judgments  were  no  longer  stable,  whose  fortunes 
were  on  the  wane.  In  the  first  flash  of  unwelcome  en 
lightenment,  Sandra's  imagination  nimbly  reeled  off  be 
fore  her  a  film  wherein  bankruptcy  courts,  tenements,  and 
charity-homes  were  the  least  appalling  features.  If  her 
father  grew  to  be  totally  unfit  for  business,  or  rather  when 
he  grew  to  be,  for  the  dire  day  must  be  approaching,  what 
would  become  of  them  all,  what  was  going  to  happen,  what 
would  they  do  ?  She  would  have  set  the  other  man's 
words  down  to  envy  or  personal  dislike  or  mere  lack  of 
insight,  but  there  was  something  dishearteningly  convinc 
ing  about  his  compassionate  indifference;  one  could  not 
associate  it  with  ill-will  or  stupidity.  He  was  right; 
she  began  shrinkingly  .to  recall  a  hundred  small  signs  she 
herself  had  noticed  and  let  pass,  not  knowing  to  what  they 
pointed.  It  could  only  be  a  matter  of  time  until  others 
besides  Mr.  Thatcher  noticed  them  too  —  and  then  what  ? 
She  thought  of  her  mother  and  grandmother  and  wondered 
if  they  knew;  the  feminine  instinct  advised  her  that  even 
if  they  did,  they  would  not  betray  it  to  her.  Nor  would 
she  betray  it;  her  father  should  never  know  that  she 
realized  he  was  a  failure,  a  broken  man.  He  had  always 
been  so  good  and  kind ;  and  what  had  they  been,  she  her 
self  and  all  the  rest  of  them  ?  An  expensive  f amily,  Mr. 
Thatcher  said,  and  he  was  right  again.  It  was  a  scorch- 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  121 

ing  appraisal  that  Sandra  reviewed  a  good  many  times 
that  afternoon. 

Let  nobody  laugh.  She  was  not  altogether  funny  with 
her  ignorance  and  her  exaggerations;  she  was  only  a 
"  nice  "  girl,  a  finished  specimen  of  her  class.  The  girl 
at  the  cashier's  desk  who  was  five  years  younger  actually, 
and  ten  years  older  in  experience,  capacity  for  work  and 
practical  knowledge  of  the  world,  would  have  felt  no  such 
dismay  at  the  same  information  about  her  father;  the 
young  women  who  waited  on  the  tables  would  have  gone 
on  serenely  planning  how  to  stretch  their  exiguous  in 
comes  —  after  they  had  paid  Ma  their  board  and  helped 
out  with  little  Johnny's  school-expenses  —  to  cover  a  pair 
of  silk  stockings  or  a  new  hat,  most  likely ;  they  and 
Miss  Cashier  had  seen  so  much  of  incompetent  or  broken- 
down  fatherhood  in  their  homespun  lives  that  the  spectacle 
had  lost  its  terrors.  To  have  a  job  and  to  be  emphatically 
"  on  "  it  were  the  things  of  real  importance  from  their 
standpoint ;  come  death  or  the  devil,  there  is  no  frighten 
ing  a  woman  who  has  a  job  and  is  intent  on  keeping  it. 
Poor  Sandra,  in  her  preoccupation,  could  not  even  stay 
"  on  "  the  very  simple  job  assigned  to  her  that  afternoon, 
but  made  a  dozen  mistakes  in  reading  price-tags,  handling 
change,  tying  up  packages.  She  was  planning,  in  the  most 
unselfish  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  self-centred  way 
in  the  world,  what  she  could  do  to  stem  the  oncoming 
flood  of  calamity;  it  did  not  occur  to  her  that  a  practical 
move  would  have  been  to  discharge  thoroughly  the  duties 
of  her  present  position,  if  only  as  a  means  of  accustoming 
herself  to  work  and  responsibility. 

She  started  home,  still  planning,  even  getting  as  far 
as  the  conversation  in  which  she  would  first  lead  up  to, 
and  then  announce,  her  intentions  to  the  family.  It  would 
have  to  be  done,  of  course,  with  the  utmost  care ;  none  of 


122  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

them  must  suspect  her  recent  discovery,  least  of  all  her 
poor  father  —  already  it  was  "  poor  father  "  with  Sandra ! 
There  would  be  a  tempest  of  objections  which,  however, 
she  would  deal  with  resolutely.  Everett  would  be  the 
hardest  to  win  over,  or  better  say,  to  ride  over,  for  no 
body  would  be  really  won.  If  Ev  knew  what  she  knew  — 
and  he  might  have  found  out  just  as  she  had  —  he  would 
be  sure  to  think  any  such  enterprise  as  she  contemplated 
a  direct  slur  upon  himself;  he  was  so  touchy  when  the 
women  of  his  family  were  concerned,  he  would  be  so 
anxious  to  save  them  from  the  hard  contacts  of  the  world, 
to  continue  them  in  their  blissful  ignorance,  the  same 
expensive  drones  they  had  always  been.  Sandra  was  very 
fond  of  her  brother;  she  admired  him  and  had  confidence 
in  him,  but  with  a  kind  of  ingenuous  shrewdness,  she 
judged  that  in  these  circumstances  Everett  could  do 
nothing  more  and  was  no  better  prepared  than  herself. 
It  would  be  years,  she  thought,  before  he  could  make 
enough  to  take  care  of  them;  it  was  all  he  could  do  to 
take  care  of  himself  now.  If  he  had  been  as  lucky  as 
Sam  Thatcher  —  but  it  was  impossible  to  figure  Everett 
succeeding  in  Sam  Thatcher's  place. 

And  here,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  one  way  out  of  some 
of  the  difficulties,  one  escape  from  responsibility  as  far  as 
she  herself  was  concerned,  presented  itself  to  Sandra.  It 
was  the  way  the  Mid-Victorians  would  have  chosen  — 
even  her  mother,  even  her  grandmother.  The  poor  things 
knew  of  scarcely  any  other.  And  she  liked  Sam.  That 
was  just  it,  Sandra  thought,  flushing  with  sudden 
humiliated  revolt.  She  liked  him  too  well  to  marry  him ; 
it  was  too  ignobly  easy,  too  convenient.  Besides,  just 
now,  for  an  oddity,  she  was  beginning  to  be  conscious  of 
a  subtle  elation;  the  prospect  of  work,  independence  and 
helpfulness  somehow  charmed  and  flattered ;  the  adventure 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  123 

beckoned.  And,  remembering  vaguely  some  heroic  plati 
tude  about  Life  flinging  down  the  gage  which  she  must 
have  heard  in  a  baccalaureate  address,  she  pictured  herself 
taking  it  up  proud,  fearless,  successful  and  applauded! 

Nevertheless,  it  required  a  certain  daring  for  her  to  take 
what  was  obviously  the  first  practical  step  on  the  course 
she  had  already  laid  out,  that  is:  to  call  at  Mr.  Matson's 
on  her  way  home.  Her  impulse  was  to  put  the  visit 
off  until  tomorrow ;  but  common-sense  or  mere  impatience 
counselled  that  there  was  no  time  like  the  present.  Sandra 
had  enough  sense  of  humour  or  ironic  perception  to  smile 
a  little  as  she  felt  her  confidence  wavering.  If  it  took  all 
this  screwing-up  to  tell  Mr.  Matson  and  ask  his  advice, 
what  sort  of  spirit  would  she  show  when  attempting  to 
carry  her  scheme  through,  she  reflected,  going  up  the  well- 
known  steps.  The  darky  porter  who  had  been  there  so 
many  years  knew  her  and  let  her  in  with  a  smiling  flourish ; 
full  many  a  tip  had  he  received  from  Miss  Boardman  and 
from  divers  young  gentlemen  with  whom  she  had 
practised  special  dances  for  special  occasions,  and  his 
famous  remark :  "  'Pears  lak  dey  ain't  quite  so  much 
goin'  on  in  our  set  this  wintah  as  usual,  Mistah  Everett, 
suh,"  quoted  everywhere  by  that  admirable  mimic,  had 
become  a  classic.  Sandra  went  into  the  familiar  little 
office  on  the  right  where  appointments  were  made;  it 
served  as  a  cloakroom,  too,  for  parties  and  on  exhibition- 
nights;  she  had  entered  it  scores  of  times  to  make  ready 
for  some  public  appearance,  but  never  in  such  a  state  of 
excitement  as  now.  A  lesson  was  going  on  in  the  next 
room  on  the  other  side  of  the  sliding  doors.  Sandra 
could  hear  the  Yictorgraph  —  one  of  Sam's  Victorgraph's, 
no  doubt  —  grinding  out  syncopated  melody,  and  Mr.  Mat- 
son's  voice;  "  One  and,  two  and,  turn,  step  out,  turn,  step 
out.  ..."  What  would  it  be  like  to  keep  that  up  with 


124  THE  BOAKDMA^  FAMILY 

successive  batches  of  pupils  day  in  and  day  out,  all  your 
life  ?  Mr.  Matson  had  been  on  the  stage,  it  was  known,  had 
probably  cut  a  spirited  figure,  heard  the  sound  of  clapping 
hands,  responded  to  a  curtain-call  —  and  this  was  what  he 
had  come  to,  or  had  deliberately  chosen !  The  perspective 
was  not  exhilarating;  still,  one  can  stand  a  good  deal  for 
five  dollars  an  hour,  thought  the  girl  with  a  new-born 
philosophy,  that  augured  not  ill. 

After  all,  the  interview  went  off  well  enough  —  that  is 
to  say,  it  was  not  nearly  so  embarrassing  as  Sandra  had 
expected,  perhaps  because  her  assumption  of  this  new 
role  was  not  so  important  an  event  as  she  had  naively 
imagined;  Mr.  Matson  listened  to  her  with  a  matter-of- 
fact  air  which  relieved  even  while  it  slightly  disconcerted. 
She  had  the  grace  to  laugh  at  herself  afterwards.  What 
ever  her  ancient  teacher  thought  of  Sandra's  proposed 
activities,  whether  he  took  the  business  for  the  vagary 
of  a  rich,  idle,  bored,  novelty-chasing  young  woman,  or 
whether  he  recognized  her  to  be  in  earnest,  he  was  too 
worldly-wise  or  too  humane,  or  it  is  even  possible  too 
much  interested  not  to  give  her  serious  attention  and  good 
counsel.  Sandra  went  home  with  a  sheaf  of  what  he 
called  "  literature,"  letters,  circulars  and  what-not  pertain 
ing  to  the  subject,  and  dressed  for  the  evening  studying 
them.  At  dinner  she  was  so  preoccupied  that  she  forgot 
to  watch  for  those  signs  of  decay  in  her  father  which  — 
as  it  had  seemed  to  her  a  few  hours  earlier  —  must  be 
multiplying  with  sad  rapidity;  and  when  she  reminded 
herself,  it  suddenly  became  impossible  to  believe  that  any 
thing  was  the  matter  with  him,  or  that  she,  Sandra,  was 
presently  going  to  be  the  sole  prop  and  stay  of  the  family ! 
Even  with  Mr.  Matson' s  literature  stowed  behind  the  sofa- 
cushions  in  the  parlour  ready  for  further  reading,  even 
with  his  practical  suggestions  still  in  her  ears,  her  project 


THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY  125 

took  on  an  air  of  inconsequence  like  a  thousand  other 
projects  about  summer-trips  or  new  dresses  which  she  was 
in  the  habit  of  dreaming  over  without  any  expectation 
of  carrying  them  out.  There  everybody  sat,  looking  just 
as  usual.  Grandma  and  Mother  playing  a  game  of 
double-solitaire  which  they  had  invented  between  them, 
Daddy  reading  "  Joseph  Vance  "  the  novel  recently  out 
by  that  new-old  English  writer,  with  intermittent  short 
naps;  he  often  fell  asleep  nowadays  over  a  book  or  maga 
zine,  but  so  did  Sandra  herself  sometimes.  Against  this 
comfortable,  everyday  background  she  and  her  plans  all  at 
once  became  preposterous;  thus  it  had  always  been,  thus 
it  always  would  be;  nothing  had  ever  happened  or  could 
happen  to  alter  their  scheme  of  life ;  it  was  as  firm-rooted 
and  unassailable  as  the  everlasting  hills.  As  if  she  could 
do  anything !  As  if  any  effort  on  her  part  were  needed ! 

"  Is  anybody  coming  this  evening,  Sandra  ?  "  her  mother 
asked,  shuffling  the  cards. 

"  No.     Oh,  yes !     Mr.  Thatcher." 

"  Oh,"  said  Mrs.  Richard,  and  began  laying  out  the 
pack  afresh.  It  was  a  minute  or  more  before  she  said  with 
her  eyes  fixed  on  the  cards,  as  she  adjusted  them  with 
elaborate  precision.  "  That  grey  foulard  never  has  looked 
well  since  it  was  cleaned.  It  seemed  to  change  the  colour 
somehow,  so  it's  not  so  becoming  as  it  was  at  first.  I'm 
afraid  you'll  have  to  give  up  wearing  it." 

"  Oh,  it's  all  right,"  said  Sandra  curtly.  She  got  up 
and  went  into  the  parlour  in  a  sharp  change  of  mood. 
Her  mother's  words,  translated  into  plain  speech,  advised 
her  to  dress  herself  with  greater  care  and  look  her  best 
so  as  to  captivate  Sam  Thatcher  —  so  Sandra  thought  in 
contempt  of  the  out-of-date  maternal  guile.  Anybody 
could  see  through  Mother.  That  was  the  way  they  did  in 
her  day;  and  to  be  sure,  girls  practised  the  same  or  kindred 


126  THE  BOAEDMA^  FAMILY 

wiles  now,  but  they  were  more  straightforward  about  it, 
they  didn't  try  to  cover  it  up  with  silly  excuses;  they 
would  even  make  fun  of  themselves  for  doing  it.  They 
had  more  sense.  Grey  dress,  indeed!  Her  mother  was 
probably  about  to  hint  in  the  same  foolishly  round 
about  manner  that  she  put  on  her  old-rose.  Anybody 
would  suppose  that  the  whole  end  and  aim  of  a  girl's  life 
was  to  catch  some  man.  And  why  was  Mother  so  anxious 
all  of  a  sudden  for  her  to  take  Sam?  Sandra,  recalling 
other  occasions  on  which  the  elder  lady  had  put  in  an 
over-eager  oar  to  help  him  along,  grew  grave.  Rarely 
does  the  American  parent  venture  upon  any  interference 
in  these  matters,  so  that  to  Sandra  this  behaviour  of  her 
mother's  seemed  so  extreme  that  she  could  only  connect 
it  gloomily  with  her  late  discoveries.  "  Poor  Moms ! 
She  has  an  idea  of  getting  me  settled  and  safe  anyhow, 
before  Father  goes  to  pieces !  "  thought  the  girl ;  and  for 
the  second  time  that  day :  "  That  was  the  way  all  the 
women  used  to  do  —  marry  somebody,  some  poor  fellow, 
it  didn't  make  any  difference  who.  They  couldn't  help  it ; 
they  didn't  have  half  the  chance  then  that  they  do  now." 
She  fished  out  the  circulars,  and  plunged  into  them  again, 
all  her  resolutions  revived. 

Sam  found  her  in  the  middle  of  this  reading  on  his 
arrival  an  hour  later;  the  ill-starred  youth  had  shaved 
and  groomed  himself  to  the  last  nicety,  and  was  rather 
nervous  and  voluble,  with  that  headligbt  of  a  solitaire  — 
four  hundred  and  fifty,  he  had  furtively  gone  in  and  priced 
it  —  glimmering,  so  to  speak,  from  the  recesses  of  his 
mind.  He  saw  nothing  amiss  with  the  grey  foulard;  it 
had  a  large  white  collar  rolling  back  from  Sandra's  slim 
throat,  and  deep  white  cuffs,  all  of  which  Sam  thought 
very  tasteful,  though  indeed  he  abjectly  admired  every 
thing  she  wore;  and  sitting  by  the  lamp  among  her 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  127 

cushions  and  circulars,  she  seemed  to  him  "like  a  real 
little  home  girl,"  he  said  fondly  to  himself.  It  occurred 
to  him  that  that  might  be  a  pretty  good  way  to  begin  — 
to  tell  her  she  looked  like  a  home  girl  would  lead  up  to  the 
subject.  And  so,  after  the  first  perfunctory  words,  and 
after  he  had  gone  into  the  other  room  and  said  a  how- 
d'ye-do  to  her  seniors  with  whom  he  had  reasons  for  wish 
ing  to  stand  well,  and  had  escaped  from  their  uninteresting 
civilities  —  after  all  this,  Samuel  finally  got  himself  down 
in  the  chair  in  front  of  Sandra,  and  fidgeting  a  little  with- 
first  one  foot  crossed  on  his  knee  and  held  in  his  hands 
and  then  the  other,  began: 

"  It's  great  to  get  back.  Seeing  you  sitting  there  gives 
me  more  of  a  home  feeling  than  —  than  my  own  home 
even !  " 

"  Gracious !  "  ejaculated  Sandra  inwardly,  with  a  slight 
panicky  feeling.  "  That  doesn't  sound  very  appreciative 
of  your  sister,"  she  announced  primly. 

"  Oh,  Susie's  all  right  —  she's  the  best  sister  ever. 
But  you  —  you're  different,  you  know,"  said  Sam,  wonder 
ing  within  him  how  he  could  sit  there  and  utter  such  an 
imbecility ;  but  aside  from  the  one  thing  he  wanted  to  talk 
about,  his  brain  was  a  vacuum ;  in  desperation  he  groped 
for  the  cue  he  had  fancied  so  felicitous.  "  You're  just 
like  a  —  a  —  a  little  home  girl." 

Sandra  wavered  for  a  breath  before  the  unconscious 
pleading  of  his  eyes.  She  liked  him  best  of  all  the  men 
she  knew ;  he  was  so  nice ;  and  just  now  he  was  so  funny 
and  —  and  dear,  so  awkward  and  anxious  and  afraid  of 
her,  and  he  was  having  such  a  terrible  time  getting 
started ! 

"  That's  such  a  pretty  dress  you  have  on,"  said  Sam  — 
and  privately  pronounced  himself  a  luridly  qualified 
chump.  Why  couldn't  he  think  of  something  sensible  to 


128  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

say?     Or  why  couldn't  he  come  to  the  point  at  once? 

Alas,  he  had  come  to  the  point  —  the  turning  point ! 
That  unlucky  mention  of  the  dress  aroused  anew  all  the 
girl's  heady  pride;  her  anxieties,  her  ambitions  crowded 
back  upon  her.  Quixotic,  they  exhibited  the  quixotic 
quality  of  being  creditable;  there  was  something  a  little 
noble  in  her  extravagant  misconception  of  the  circum 
stances  and  of  her  duty.  Marry  Sam,  and  set  her 
mother's  mind  at  rest,  and  slip  out  of  trouble ;  marry  him 
and  take  it  easy;  marry  him  and  let  the  family  shift  for 
themselves,  or  saddle  them  on  her  husband's  shoulders! 
Oh,  the  shabby  trick,  the  cheap,  cheap  expedient!  He 
learned  forward  and  picked  up  a  dangling  end  of  her 
girdle,  slipping  it  through  and  through  his  fingers  me 
chanically;  he  cleared  his  throat;  he  would  say  the  words 
if  she  did  not  prevent  him.  Sandra  sat  upright,  twitching 
the  ribbon  out  of  his  hands,  and  spoke  precipitately. 

"  I  want  to  tell  you  something.  It  seems  as  if  you 
ought  to  know.  I  —  I  heard  what  you  and  Mr.  Thatcher 
were  talking  about  at  lunch  today." 

Sam  stared  at  her,  startled  by  the  abrupt  movement, 
and  the  dramatic  emphasis  she  put  into  a  statement  which, 
for  the  moment,  conveyed  nothing  to  him.  Uncle  George 
and  the  Exchange  were  miles  out  of  his  mind. 

"  Yes  ?  "  he  said  inquiringly,  and  waited. 

"  I  was  skting  right  behind  you  all  the  time,  and  so 
I  couldn't  help  hearing  everything.  I  didn't  mean  to; 
but  I  —  I  didn't  think  quick  enough  to  stop  you,"  said 
Sandra. 

Sam  perceived  that  her  tragic  tone  invited  or  awaited 
something  responsive,  to  which  he  found  himself  stupidly 
inadequate.  He  could  see  nothing  in  the  situation  to 
warrant  growing  so  "  intense  "  all  of  a  sudden.  The  truth 
was,  his  uncle's  disclosures  about  Mr.  Boardman  had  made 


THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY  129 

little  or  no  impression  on  the  young  man ;  it  was  natural 
enough  that  men  of  that  generation  should  be  going  down 
hill;  and  at  any  rate,  one  heard  all  sorts  of  talk  on  the 
street,  to  which  it  was  not  necessary  to  pay  much  atten 
tion,  nine-tenths  of  it  being  uttered  in  mistake  or  exag 
geration.  He  was  so  far  from  recognizing  what  Sandra 
referred  to,  that,  searching  his  mind,  he  came  upon  the 
horrid  suspicion  that  maybe  he  and  Uncle  George  had 
been  entertaining  themselves  with  some  off-colour  joke  or 
anecdote,  though  neither  one  of  them  was  much  given  that 
way;  then  he  dismissed  the  idea,  sure  that  she  wouldn't 
have  spoken  of  it,  if  that  had  been  the  case. 

"  Yes  ? "  he  said  again  as  sympathetically  as  he  was 
able.  "I  —  I  guess  it's  all  right.  We  weren't  telling 
any  secrets." 

"  I  suppose  it  wasn't  any  secret  to  your  uncle,"  said 
Sandra  gloomily.  "  I  suppose  everybody  knows.  But  I 
know  Mr.  Thatcher  wouldn't  have  spoken  that  way  about 
my  father  if  he  had  dreamed  I  was  anywhere  around  to 
hear  him.  Of  course  I'd  have  found  out  for  myself  sooner 
or  later  anyhow,  so  I  don't  want  you  to  think  that  I'm 
offended,  or  to  feel  badly  because  it's  happened  this  way. 
It  seemed  underhanded  somehow  not  to  tell  you  that  I  was 
listening." 

Now  at  last  illumination  descended  upon  Sam,  to  his 
mortal  embarrassment.  "  Oh,  that !  That  about  —  that 
is,  what  Uncle  George  said  — "  he  stammered.  "  Why  — 
why,  I  wouldn't  think  anything  of  that!  If  I  were  in 
your  place,  I  mean.  Uncle  George  was  just  talking,  you 
know." 

"  He  meant  it.  He  wouldn't  have  said  it  if  he  hadn't 
thought  it  was  true." 

"  Why,  yes,  he  would  —  he  was  just  talking  —  people 
say  a  lot  of  things  they  don't  really  mean.  They  —  just 


130  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

get  to  talking,  and  it  sounds  different  from  what  they 
think  —  they  don't  mean  to  be  taken  literally  —  they're 
just  talking  along  carelessly,"  protested  the  young  man, 
troubled  and  regretful.  "  Anyway,  what  did  Uncle 
George  say,  really?  I've  kind  of  forgotten  what  he  did 
say,  so  you  see  it  didn't  seem  serious  or  important  to 


me—" 


"  It  wasn't  your  father." 

"  No,  but  still  —  look  here,  don't  feel  so  badly !  Why, 
he  only  said  Mr.  Boardnaan  wasn't  in  very  good  health, 
didn't  he?  That's  all  he  said.  That  doesn't  mean  that 
—  that  your  father's  going  to  —  to  die.  He's  probably 
not  quite  so  strong  this  spring  and  needs  a  rest ;  everybody 
ought  to  take  a  rest  once  in  a  while.  My  goodness,  I'm 
sorry  this  thing  happened !  Uncle  George  would  be  wor 
ried  to  death  if  he  thought  anything  he  said  had  got 
you  so  worked  up.  He  wouldn't  have  done  it  for  any 
thing—" 

"  He  didn't  do  anything  but  tell  the  truth  when  I  hap 
pened  to  be  where  I  could  hear  him.  Nobody's  to  blame. 
Don't  you  feel  so  badly,"  said  the  girl  generously.  Cf  I'm 
not  sorry.  Honestly,  I'm  not.  It's  just  as  I  say,  I  had 
to  find  it  out  some  day,  and  one  time's  as  good  as  another. 
It  couldn't  be  easy  for  me  whenever  it  happened."  She 
paused,  glancing  towards  the  living-room,  and  went  on 
in  a  lower  voice.  "  Mr.  Thatcher  didn't  say  anything 
about  poor  Dad's  health.  You  knoiv  that.  You're  just 
trying  to  be  kind,  and  —  and  I  think  it's  lovely  of  you, 
but  it's  no  use.  That's  not  what's  the  matter  with  Dad." 

Sam  sat  silent,  feeling  himself  lamentably  short  of  con 
soling  arguments.  "  Well,  your  father's  getting  older,  of 
course,  and  that  tells  on  a  man.  You  can't  expect  him  to 
be  what  he  was  a  few  years  ago,"  he  offered  at  length. 
"But  you  mustn't  worry  about  him.  He's  ten  times  as 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  131 

capable  as  lots  of  men  his  age  and  younger.  I've  heard 
them  speak  of  how  Mr.  Boardman  can  work  —  oh,  time 
and  time  again !  "  said  Sam,  warming  to  the  subject. 
"  They  all  say  he's  a  wonder,  he's  such  a  worker  — " 

"  He's  had  to  be.  He's  had  such  a  load  always  —  all 
of  us  to  take  care  of,"  said  Sandra. 

"  Oh,  pshaw,  that  hasn't  got  anything  to  do  with  it !  " 
said  Sam,  helplessly  conscious  of  having  blundered  again ; 
it  was  indeed  impossible  to  say  the  right  thing,  but  he  kept 
on  desperately.  "  He's  the  kind  of  man  that  wouldn't 
be  happy  unless  he  was  working,  and  taking  care  of  a 
family.  He  — " 

"  Well,  I've  made  up  my  mind  to  one  thing.  I'm  not 
going  to  be  taken  care  of  any  longer,"  Sandra  said. 

"  You're  not  —  ?     You're  —  ?  " 

"  I'm  going  to  work." 

There  was  a  pause  during  which  Mr.  Thatcher  assimi 
lated  this  information  with  a  blank  countenance.  "  Going 
to  work  ? "  he  repeated  finally  in  a  voice  and  with  a 
manner  that  fairly  radiated  objection,  though  he  was 
honestly  endeavouring  to  render  them  perfectly  non-com 
mittal:  Who  was  he  to  raise  objections,  and  by  what 
right  ?  "  Why,  why  ?  What  for  ?  What  do  you  want  to 
go  to  work  for?  You  don't  have  to." 

"  Oh,  but  I  do  —  or  I  will  in  a  little  while.  I  might 
as  well  begin.  I've  always  wanted  to  anyhow  —  I  mean 
that  here  recently  I've  been  thinking  a  good  deal  about 
it,"  said  Sandra,  earnestly.  She  forgot  the  young  fellow's 
own  plans  and  hopes,  only  relying  on  his  sympathetic 
understanding  as  she  went  on  diffidently  yet  eagerly.  "  I 
felt  as  if  I'd  like  to  do  something  and  be  of  some  use 
long  before  this.  That's  the  reason  I  say  I'm  not  sorry 
to  —  to  have  had  my  eyes  opened.  I  might  have  gone  on 
for  ever  in  that  slipshod  way,  just  saying  to  myself 


132  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

that  I'd  like  to  work !     And  time  is  so  important  — " 

Sam  made  a  movement.  "Oh,  time!"  he  said  almost 
angrily.  "  There  isn't  any  such  awful  hurry.  You  act 
as  if  the  bottom  had  fallen  out  of  everything!  Why, 
nothing's  happened  —  probably  nothing  ever  will  happen. 
Of  course  I  don't  know  anything  about  it,  and  it's  none 
of  my  business  anyhow,  but  I  haven't  the  least  doubt 
that  your  father's  got  plenty  enough  to  live  on,  if  he  never 
did  another  stroke  of  work  in  his  life  — " 

She  arrested  him  with  a  solemn  face.  "  There ! 
You've  come  to  the  very  thing  that  first  worried  me.  I 
let  it  go  out  of  my  mind  afterwards,  but  I  thought  of  it 
again  this  afternoon.  Dad  doesn't  know  how  much  he's 
got.  I  asked  him  once  and  he  put  me  off  —  he  wouldn't 
answer.  I  see  now  what  the  matter  was.  He  didn't 
know ! "  said  Sandra,  sure  that  this  would  definitely 
establish  the  gravity  of  her  father's  case.  "  He  doesn't 
know  this  minute,  how  much  he  has  to  live  on  —  where 
he  stands,  you  know." 

To  her  surprise  the  other's  optimism  (real  or  assumed 
for  her  benefit)  stood  the  test  even  of  this  damaging  revela 
tion.  "  That's  nothing !  Dozens  of  men  can't  tell  off 
hand  how  much  they  have.  They  don't  keep  account  of 
everything  down  to  the  last  cent;  you  really  can't.  I 
wouldn't  think  anything  of  that." 

"  Don't  you  know  ?  " 

"  Well,  I'm  on  a  salary,  I  can't  help  but  know,"  said 
Samuel  uncomfortably,  feeling  himself  cornered.  "  A 
man  running  a  business  is  different." 

Sandra  shook  her  head.  "  You  can't  make  me  believe 
that.  Nobody  could  get  along  that  way,"  she  said  with 
the  appalling  logic  of  a  woman;  and  returned  to  her 
theme.  "  I  know  you  don't  approve  of  women  working, 
but  if  you  just  stop  to  think  you  can  see  how  much  better 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  133 

it  will  be  for  me  to  be  independent.  It  wouldn't  be  right 
for  me  to  stay  at  home  and  let  things  go  on  just  as  they 
are  until  Dad  —  until  something  happens.  I  couldn't  do 
it.  I  won't  be  a  drag.  Even  if  I  don't  do  anything 
except  help  to  take  care  of  myself  —  and  I  want  to 
help  take  care  of  Mother  and  Grandma  too,  of  course  — 
but  even  if  I  don't  do  anything  but  support  myself,  it 
will  be  better  than  nothing." 

The  young  man  listened  to  her  again  dismally  silent, 
beholding  his  own  dreams  fade  off,  dwindle  to  the  vanish 
ing-point.  Was  ever  woman  in  this  humour  wooed? 
She  was  obsessed  with  this  independence-and-save-Father 
idea ;  and  after  all  that  was  just  like  her.  It  was  nonsense, 
but  it  was  splendid.  He  drew  a  long  sigh. 

"  Well,  of  course  —  if  that's  how  you  feel  —  Only 
I  hate  to  think  of  you  driving  away  in  one  of  these  frowzy 
old  offices  all  day  long,  Sandra  —  oh,  I  —  I  beg  your 
pardon  —  I  —  er  — " 

"  Why,  I  don't  mind.  We  always  used  to  call  each  other 
by  our  first  names  when  we  were  at  school.  I  don't  mind 
a  bit,"  she  assured  him  so  kindly  and  unconcernedly  that 
poor  Sam's  last  spark  of  hope  flickered  out.  "  I'll  call  you 
by  yours,  if  you  like.  Shall  I  ?  " 

"  I  would  —  ever  so  much  — " 

"  All  right !  "  He  looked  so  forlorn  and  was  so  mani 
festly  safe  now  that  Sandra  felt  impelled  to  more  con 
fidences.  "  You  don't  need  to  feel  badly  about  my  going 
into  an  office  either,  because  I  don't  think  I'll  be  in  an 
office.  I  don't  like  the  idea  myself.  And  besides  I 
haven't  had  any  office  training,  and  it  would  take  a  good 
while  to  learn.  I  thought  it  would  be  better  to  start  doing 
something  that  I  could  do  right  away.  So  I  —  I'm  going 
to  dance." 

"What!"  shouted  Sam. 


134:  THE  BOARDMAJST  FAMILY 

"  Sh-h;  they  might  hear  you/'  said  Sandra  with  another 
warning  glance  towards  the  next  roonu  And  even  in  his 
consternation  the  young  man  felt  a  delicious  thrill  when 
she  added  not  without  a  faint  embarrassment :  "  You  see 
they  don't  know  yet.  You're  the  first  person  I've  told  — 
Sam." 


CHAPTER  X 

SANDRA,  except  in  one  or  two  particulars,  had  not 
been  very  wide  of  the  mark  in  her  forecast  of  the 
way  in  which  the  family  would  receive  her  project.  She 
was  prepared  for  her  mother's  incredulity  advancing 
through  successive  stages  of  alarm,  dismay  and  distress 
to  a  certainty  that  was  still  somehow  desperately  in 
credulous.  For  the  poor  lady,  it  was  if  the  old  tale  had 
been  reversed,  and  her  swan  had  developed  into  an  ugly 
duckling  at  the  last;  she  was  more  disappointed  than 
actually  grieved  or  shocked.  Mrs.  Richard  was  reason 
ably  progressive ;  she  had  indeed  surmounted  some  of  the 
prejudices  of  her  generation  almost  without  knowing  it. 
It  no  longer  appeared  to  her  dreadful  or  deplorable  that 
a  young  woman  of  her  own  class  should  go  out  and  work 
whether  by  choice  or  necessity.  Too  many  of  her  own 
friends'  girls  went  to  college  or  to  special  courses  here 
at  home,  even  in  such  bizarre  branches  as  sewing  and 
cookery,  avowedly  to  prepare  themselves  to  face  the  world 
"  in  case  anything  happened."  Too  many  of  them,  going 
a  step  farther  afterwards,  took  positions,  teacher  here, 
librarian  there,  secretary  elsewhere,  acts  which  their 
mothers  explained  as  due  to  Gladys'  or  Janet's  or  Mary 
Jane's  restlessness,  to  her  ambition  or  eccentricity  — 
when  they  did  not  bluntly  set  it  down  to  the  young  woman's 
desire  for  more  pocket-money  than  her  father  could  afford 
to  give  her.  Mrs.  Boardman,  listening,  never  failed  to 
show  exactly  the  right  amount  and  quality  of  interest; 
she  would  be  surprised  or  amused  or  indulgent  in  aocord- 

135 


136  THE  BOAEDMA^"  FAMILY 

ance  with  the  other  mother's  attitude.  She  was  well 
up  in  all  the  stock  phrases:  the  young  people  did 
very  strange  things  nowadays;  but  the  world  moves,  we 
must  move  with  it;  at  any  rate,  let  us  not  be  stumbling- 
blocks,  hobble-chains,  old  fogies!  These  were  Mrs. 
Richard's  publicly  expressed  sentiments,  and  she  honestly 
believed  that  she  believed  them.  The  truth  was  that  in 
her  heart  of  hearts,  Sandra's  mother,  along  with  dozens 
of  other  mothers  who  made  just  as  good  a  show  of  being 
prodigiously  up-to-date,  clung  invincibly  to  the  ancient 
creed  of  women,  that  a  girl's  business  in  life  was  to  get 
married.  All  this  talk  about  Gladys  and  Janet  and  Mary 
Jane  being  restless,  being  ambitious,  being  independent, 
being  tired  of  society,  was  stuff  and  nonsense,  mere  ex 
cuses,  vamped  up  to  save  their  faces.  The  real  trouble 
was  that  they  had  missed  their  chances ;  old-maidhood  was 
imminent,  was  upon  them  already ;  they  were  failures ! 

Now  here  was  Sandra  proposing  to  join  their  ranks! 
Everybody  would  think  that  she  had  never  had  an  offer, 
and  had  grown  tired  of  sitting  around  waiting,  Mrs.  Kich- 
ard  reflected  bitterly.  And  she  herself  must  go  about 
reciting  those  stories  about  restlessness,  independence  and 
so  on,  which  nobody  would  believe,  but  which  all  would 
hear  with  the  humane  good  breeding  she  had  always  prac 
tised.  That  her  report  would  be  true,  and  that,  by  infer 
ence,  the  other  mothers'  reports  might  be  true  too,  did  not 
enter  into  her  considerations.  Even  Sandra's  choice  of 
a  profession,  outlandish  as  it  was,  affected  the  mother,  as 
it  were,  incidentally;  she  raised  objections  on  that  score, 
of  course,  but  her  real  concern  was  not  over  Sandra's 
dancing. 

Sandra  knew  it ;  she  knew  every  thought  in  her  mother's 
head,  and  alas,  it  may  be  doubted  if  she  set  an  overhigL. 
value  on  them.  With  her  father,  it  was  different;  the 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  137 

girl  was  a  little  frightened  at  first  by  the  ease  with  which 
she  won  him ;  it  confirmed  her,  it  confirmed  Mr.  Thatcher, 
too  emphatically.  To  be  sure  she  was  not  absolutely  frank 
with  him ;  he  did  not  quite  know  what  she  meant  to  do,  or 
why;  she  could  not  tell  him  —  poor  father!  In  truth, 
others  besides  poor  father  might  have  found  Sandra's  halt 
ing  and  ambiguous  exposition  somewhat  difficult  to  follow ; 
it  was  not  natural  to  her  to  be  indirect. 

"As  I  understand  it,  Sandra,  you  want  to  go  to  New 
York  and  take  a  course  in  fancy  dancing  at  some  school  or 
with  one  of  these  star  dancers  that  have  been  going  around 
the  country  so  much  here  lately  —  Russians  and  French 
and  all  the  rest  of  them,"  said  Richard  at  last.  He  pon 
dered.  "  Well  now,  I  guess  you  can  do  that.  Only  your 
mother  or  somebody  will  have  to  go  and  be  with  you,  won't 
she  ?  New  York  isn't  much  of  a  place  for  a  girl  —  you've 
never  been  there  by  yourself  in  your  life.  It  will  be 
very  different.  And  dancing  —  well  —  I  don't  know  what 
sort  of  people  you  will  be  thrown  with.  It  wouldn't  have 
done  at  all  twenty-five  years  £go.  There  has  been  a  great 
change,  I  know  —  " 

Sandra  began  eager  explanations  and  assurances  —  the 
more  eager  because  here  at  least  was  a  point  on  which  she 
could  speak  openly,  and  he  listened  to  her  with  an  occa 
sional  nod  of  understanding;  also  he  looked  over  the  cir 
culars  without  disapproval,  in  fact  with  lively  interest. 

"  Very  straightforward  and  business-like,  aren't  they  ? 
Like  any  other  school  prospectus !  "  he  said  in  surprise. 
"  Seems  funny.  I  can't  get  over  the  idea  that  dancing 
isn't  a  study,  let  alone  an  art  or  a  science  or  whatever  they 
call  it  nowadays.  We  all  used  to  think  that  you  only 
went  to  dancing-school  when  you  were  a  little  tad  —  eight 
or  ten  years  old,  along  there.  But  goodness  gracious,  listen 
to  this !  "  And  here  Mr.  Boardman  read  aloud  from  one 


138  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

of  the  pamphlets  with  thorough  relish :  "  '  One  of  the  vital 
accomplishments  by  which  men,  women  and  children  are 
measured  is  their  mastery  of  Dancing  which  brings  to  the 
surface  the  highest  standards  of  magnetic  personality. 
...  It  introduces  into  the  actions  of  an  individual  a 
mental  and  physical  tone  which  is  the  result  of  no  other 
form  of  education.'  My,  my,  think  of  dancing  doing 
all  that  for  you!  I  begin  to  regret  my  misspent  youth, 
merely  learning  to  read  and  write.  And  what's  this  ?  '  A 
few  common  terms  used  in  Buck,  Clog,  Jig  and  Reel 
Dancing:  Slap  Step,  Hopping  Beat,  Pick  up  Tap, 
Single  Eoll,  Double  Roll,  Cutting  Shuffle,  Flam.'  My, 
my,"  said  Richard  again,  solemnly.  "Are  you  go 
ing  to  come  back  to  us  from  New  York  with  your 
magnetic  personality  augmented  by  knowing  how  to  —  to 
Flaunt" 

Sandra  laughed  with  him,  though  uncertain  whether 
she  resented  or  was  glad  of,  the  very  apparent  fact  that  he 
was  not  taking  her  seriously.  "  I'll  show  him  —  I'll  show 
them  all  some  day !  "  she  thought  almost  fiercely,  but  only 
said :  "  I  can  clog  a  little  already.  That  course  must  be 
intended  mainly  for  men,  anyhow." 

"  Men!  "  repeated  her  father.  "  Well,  of  course  they 
have  to  go  to  school  and  learn  too,  if  they  are  going  to 
make  a  trade  of  it,"  he  added  on  second  thought.  "  But 
of  all  queer  ways  for  a  man  to  earn  his  living!  " 

"  That's  what  Ev  says,"  said  Sandra.  "  But  some  of 
them  make  a  great  deal  of  money,  you  know,  Dad." 

Her  father  glanced  into  the  young  face,  smiling ;  but  at 
something  he  saw  there,  some  un-girlish  and  most  un- 
Sandra-like  hardness  or  coldness,  the  smile  vanished.  It 
came  to  him  that  he  did  not  know,  he  could  not  even  guess 
at  what  was  going  on  within  the  little  smooth  dark  head 
that  was  so  infinitely  dear ;  for  one  painful  instant  he  sat 


THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY  139 

beside  his  own  child  as  if  in  the  company  of  a  stranger,  and 
felt  the  essential  isolation  of  every  human  being. 

"  It  isn't  so  easy  and  cheap  as  Ev  thinks,"  said  Sandra, 
her  eyes  on  the  cut  of  Benson  and  Mazie,  Eccentric  Soft- 
Shoe  Team,  extraordinarily  interlaced,  so  that  it  was  im 
possible  to  assign  their  respective  arms  and  legs.  "  You 
have  to  work;  you  have  to  do  your  best  all  the  time.  And 
somehow,  Dad/'  she  went  on  with  sudden  vehemence,  "  you 
never  seem  to  be  doing  your  best,  no  matter  how  hard  you 
try.  IVe  often  felt  that  when  I've  been  dancing  —  doing 
a  dance  on  the  stage  before  people,  you  know." 

"  You  dance  beautifully,  Sandra,"  said  her  father, 
fondly. 

"  I  know,  I  know !  "  She  made  an  impatient  gesture. 
"  I  can  dance  —  yes !  But  I  never  seem  to  myself  quite 
to  —  to  get  there.  It's  strange,"  said  Sandra,  medita 
tively.  "  I  feel  perfectly  confident  that  I  can  do  it,  and 
yet  all  the  while  deep  down  in  my  heart,  I  know  that  I 
can't  ever  do  it !  " 

"  I'll  have  to  give  that  up.  It's  too  profound  a  propo 
sition  for  me,"  said  Richard,  wagging  his  head,  whereat 
Sandra  laughed  or  pretended  to  laugh,  inwardly  berating 
herself  soundly.  She  never  could  make  anybody  under 
stand  how  she  felt  about  her  dancing;  it  was  silly  to  try, 
silly  to  talk  about  it  at  all. 

Everett  had  not  only  said  what  Sandra  reported,  he  had 
said  a  great  deal  more  in  as  severe  language  as  he  could 
bring  himself  to  use  to  a  girl  —  his  own  sister  at  that. 
According  to  him,  the  whole  idea  of  this  experiment  was 
outrageous.  Dancing-lessons?  What  did  Sandra  want 
with  more  dancing-lessons  ?  Why  should  she  go  and  mix 
herself  up  with  a  lot  of  second-rate  people,  in  a  big  city 
where  she  didn't  know  anybody,  and  would  have  no  one 
to  look  after  her?  "Profession?  Oh,  stuff!"  he  said 


140  THE  BOAEDMAIST  FAMILY 

when  Sandra  tentatively  presented  that  view.  "  You 
couldn't  ever  follow  it  as  a  profession.  It  isn't  the  sort 
of  thing  that  you  could  do.  Girls  from  families  like  ours 
do  sometimes  go  on  the  stage,  of  course,  but  not  as  dancers. 
You  might  as  well  be  a  circus-rider.  I  daresay  Genee  and 
Pavlova  and  the  others  come  of  decent  enough  people,  but 
not  our  kind.  Of  course,  they  are  great  artists,  and  it 
wouldn't  make  any  difference  where  they  came  from,"  said 
Everett,  liberally.  "But  you  —  why,  it's  preposterous! 
If  you  want  to  fit  yourself  for  doing  something,  if  anything 
happened  so  that  you'd  have  to,  for  Heaven's  sake,  take 
up  something  such  as  the  rest  of  the  girls  go  into.  Teach 
ing,  or  —  " 

"  Teaching?  What  could  I  teach  ?  "  cried  out  Sandra. 
"  Everybody  always  pokes  teaching  at  a  girl,  or  book 
keeping  or  shorthand,  something  like  that,  regardless  of 
what  she's  fitted  for  or  has  a  taste  for.  It  saves  time  to  go 
ahead  with  something  that  you  know  a  little  about  al 
ready." 

"  There  isn't  any  question  of  saving  time  in  your  case, 
though.  You  don't  have  to  do  anything,  and  you  won't 
ever  have  to  as  long  as  Father  and  I  are  here  to  take  care 
of  you,"  said  Everett ;  and  he  added  with  forbearance  and 
dignity :  "  Of  course  the  time  may  come  when  we  can't 
give  you  everything  you  want;  something  might  happen. 
But  in  the  meanwhile,  it  seems  to  me  you  might  think  of 
us  a  little,  and  not  do  these  extreme  things  that  make 
everybody  talk." 

Sandra  was  silent;  not,  indeed,  that  his  argument  had 
caused  her  to  change  her  mind  in  the  least.  Perhaps  that 
remark  about  great  artists  stung  her  into  a  more  stubborn 
determination  than  ever ;  she  would  sliow  him.  But  at  the 
moment  there  did  not  seem  to  be  anything  to  say.  He 
made  her  feel  herself  an  ungrateful  creature,  doggedly 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  141 

sacrificing  everybody  to  her  own  selfish  whims;  yet  con 
science  timidly  assured  her  that  she  was  nothing  of  the 
sort.  Everett,  so  far  from  "  taking  care  "  of  her,  had 
never  hitherto  given  her  a  penny,  but  Sandra,  even  when 
she  remembered  that  fact,  did  not  dream  of  retorting  upon 
him  with  it ;  she  would  have  thought  it  vulgar  and  mean ; 
Everett  meant  to  give  to  her  when  he  made  enough  so  that 
he  could  afford  it. 

Mrs.  Alexander  heard  what  was  afoot  with  her  habitual 
philosophical  urbanity,  her  first  concern  being,  like  Rich 
ard's,  the  practical  one  as  to  where  and  with  whom  her 
granddaughter  would  be.  But  when  Sandra,  colouring 
faintly,  told  her  that  she  thought  of  being  with  a  sister 
of  Mr.  Thatcher's,  the  old  lady,  for  once  in  her  life,  looked 
in  utter  bewilderment. 

"  A  sister  of  Mr.  Thatcher's  ? "  she  echoed.  "  Does 
your  mother  know  her?  I  had  no  idea  you  were  at  all 
intimate  with  the  Thatchers  —  except,  of  course,  this 
young  Mr.  Thatcher  that  comes  here  —  the  one  named 
Sam.  Is  it  his  family  you  are  going  to  visit  ?  Or  does 
the  sister  take  boarders  ?  " 

"  No,  no !  "  said  Sandra,  laughing  awkwardly,  disturbed 
to  feel  her  face  getting  redder  still.  "  I  didn't  put  it  very 
clearly.  It's  that  Mr.  Thatcher's  sister  I'm  talking  about 
—  Miss  Kate  Thatcher  —  but  I'm  not  going  to  stay  with 
her,  and  she  doesn't  keep  a  boarding-house.  She  herself 
boards,  and  I  thought  I  would  board  in  the  same  house. 
I  don't  know  her,  but  he  —  I  mean  Mr.  Thatcher  — 
thought  I  might  like  to  be  near  her.  She's  a  good  deal 
older  than  I  am,  and  she  knows  all  about  New  York  — 
she's  lived  there  for  years.  She  has  a  position  in  a  school, 
and  —  " 

"  A  private  school  ?  "  her  mother  asked  keenly. 

"  Yes.     It's  all  right,  Mother,  I'm  sure  she's  nice  —  " 


142  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

"  One  of  the  thousand-a-year  kind  ? "  pursued  Mrs. 
Richard. 

"  Yes,  oh  yes !  "  said  Sandra,  who  knew  nothing  what 
ever  about  it,  fibbing  desperately.  She  wondered  to  find 
herself,  with  the  most  honest  and  honourable  of  purposes, 
involved  in  this  web  of  small  deceits ;  it  did  not  seem  pos 
sible  to  tell  the  family  the  whole  truth,  even  about  insig 
nificant  details ;  they  would  not  understand ;  she  could  hear 
in  fancy  the  outcry  they  would  raise.  Maybe  some  day 
when  she  had  conquered  all  the  other  obstacles  and  had 
reached  a  point  where  nothing  she  did  would  be  questioned 
and  her  antecedents  would  not  matter  any  more  than 
Genee's  or  Pavlova's,  when  she  had  become  a  "  great  ar 
tist"  in  short  —  maybe  then  she  could  confide  in  her 
mother  and  the  rest.  It  was  doubtless  one  of  life's  little 
ironic  adjustments  that  there  were  moments  when  Miss 
Alexandra  Boardman  wished  vehemently  that  she  had  been 
born  Smith  or  Schwartz  or  anything  you  please,  the  daugh 
ter  of  a  groceryman,  a  tailor,  a  hotel-keeper !  "  Then  I 
could  do  anything  I  wanted  without  having  to  be  eternally 
explaining  and  telling  stories.  People  like  that  don't 
care !  "  she  thought. 

"  Oh,  well  then,  it  must  be  one  of  those  finishing-schools, 
where  the  girls  are  generally  nice  —  not  that  the  rate  of 
tuition  has  anything  to  do  with  it,  of  course.  It  merely 
gives  one  something  to  judge  by,"  said  Sandra's  mother, 
satisfied.  "  They  have  to  keep  the  teachers  up  to  a  high 
standard,  too.  Miss  Thatcher  is  probably  accustomed  to 
chaperoning  girls  like  yourself,  Sandra  — " 

"  I  don't  expect  her  to  chaperon  me.  I'm  nearly 
twenty-five  and  if  I  don't  know  enough  to  go  around  by 
myself  now,  I'll  never  learn,"  said  Sandra  with  an  asperity 
born  of  distaste  for  her  position. 

Mrs.  Richard  looked  both  shocked  and  hurt  for  a  second, 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  143 

then  another  thought  made  her  smile.  "  Well,  to  be  sure, 
when  I  was  that  age,  I  wouldn't  have  thanked  any  one  who 
wanted  to  chaperon  me,"  she  said  leniently.  "  But  I  had 
been  married  five  years  and  had  two  children.  You  are 
a  girl  still,  you  see.  I  suppose  you  really  are  old  enough 

—  only  you  always  seem  so  young  to  me." 

"  How  long  do  you  think  you  will  be  away,  Sandra  ?  " 
her  grandmother  asked. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  the  girl,  with  a  fresh  sense  of 
guilt.  "  It  depends  on  —  on  what  kind  of  a  course  I  de 
cide  to  take.  They  have  three-month  ones,  and  six-months 

—  different  kinds  —  it's  like  any  other  school,  you  know." 
"  And  then  what  ?  "  asked  the  old  lady.     Her  black  eyes 

rested  on  the  girl  with  disquieting  penetration.  "  Is  this 
an  experiment,  or  an  adventure,  or  a  —  a  prelude  ?  " 

"  Maybe  it's  a  little  of  all  three,"  said  Sandra,  truth 
fully  enough.  "  How  can  I  tell  what  it's  going  to  turn 
out?" 

Mrs.  Alexander  asked  no  more  questions  at  that  time; 
in  fact  she  contrived,  in  her  unobtrusive  way,  to  intervene 
between  Sandra  and  the  curiosity,  the  suspicious  aston 
ishment  of  their  world.  It  was  amusing.  The  old  gentle 
woman  sat  invincible  within  her  fortress  of  Victorian  good 
manners,  and  inquiry  retired  from  the  attack  not  only 
baffled  but  convicted  of  vulgarity.  Yet  she  never  snubbed 
anybody,  never  gave  offence,  never  was  evasive,  or  em 
barrassed,  or  formal  or  affected.  Sandra,  belonging  to 
a  generation  not  so  thoroughly  versed  in  these  subtleties 
of  behaviour,  witnessed  her  senior's  performances  with  in 
creasing  confidence  that  "  you  could  tell  Grandma  any 
thing."  So  that,  when  the  older  lady  one  day  when  they 
happened  to  be  alone  together,  said :  "  What  is  it  you  are 
really  planning  to  do,  Sandra  ? "  the  girl  answered  her 
fully  and  freely. 


144  THE  BOAEDMAIsr  FAMILY 

If  Mrs.  Boardman  was  surprised  or  scandalized,  she 
justified  Sandra's  belief  in  her,  by  not  showing  it.  After 
a  while  she  said :  "  I  don't  think  the  family  quite  realizes 
this.  Of  course  outsiders  don't.  But  your  father  and 
mother  —  " 

"  I  can't  tell  them.     They  wouldn't  —  " 

Mrs.  Boardman  waved  her  hand.  "  I  understand,"  she 
said,  conclusively. 

"  You  —  you  suspected  something  anyhow,  didn't 
you?" 

"  Well  —  perhaps,"  Mrs.  Boardman  admitted.  She 
considered  for  another  while.  "  In  the  old  days,  dancers 
—  Taglioni,  Fannie  Ellsler,  all  of  them,  high  and  low  — 
were  women  of  '  no  reputation '  as  we  used  to  say.  We 
thought  the  same  of  actresses  —  of  any  woman  in  public 
life.  We  thought  a  dancing-teacher  was  one  remove  from 
a  barber  or  man-cook.  We  profess  to  have  outgrown  all 
those  ideas,  but  I  think  so  still  —  " 

"  There,  you  see !  I  can't  make  any  of  you  understand, 
not  even  you.  That's  the  reason  I  haven't  told  them. 
There's  no  use,"  said  Sandra,  grimly. 

"  No,  I  suppose  there  isn't  any  use,  since  I  myself  can't 
get  rid  of  these  old  ingrained  beliefs.  They  are  just  like 
any  other  beliefs  —  they  haven't  anything  to  do  with  rea 
son  or  common-sense,"  said  the  old  lady.  "  I  was  brought 
up  to  think  that  Methodists  were  very  common  people,  who 
went  bawling  around  about  their  spiritual  experiences  in 
the  worst  possible  taste,  and  addressed  the  Creator  with 
offensive  familiarity.  Well,  I  daresay  Methodists  don't 
do  those  things  any  more:  maybe  they  never  did:  but  I 
still  think  Methodists  are  very  common  people!  In  the 
same  way  I  still  think  that  ballet  dancers  are  dreadful 
young  women,  whereas  nowadays  they  may  be  as  respect 
able  as  I  am !  " 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  145 

"  Ob,  but  I'm  not  going  to  be  an  ordinary  ballet-dancer, 
Grandma !  "  Sandra  protested,  not  without  temper. 

"  Ob !  I  thought  they  all  had  to  begin  in  the  ranks," 
said  Mrs.  Alexander.  "  Another  misconception !  An 
other  prejudice !  "  she  remarked,  polishing  her  eyeglasses. 

"  Why  yes,  of  course,  when  they  dance  in  that  style  — 
toe-dancing.  But  I'm  different  —  that's  not  what  I  intend 
to  do  at  all,"  Sandra  explained  heatedly.  "  There're  ever 
so  many  styles  of  dancing.  Why,  you  know  that !  " 

"  Yes,  to  be  sure  —  I  should  have  remembered,"  said 
Mrs.  Boardman,  and  veered  away  to  a  safer  topic.  "  But 
after  you  get  through  your  —  er  —  your  studies,  you  do 
expect  to  dance  publicly  ?  " 

"  If  I  can  get  an  engagement,  yes  indeed !  "  said  Sandra. 
"  Gracious,  I've  danced  in  public  often  enough  as  an  ama 
teur.  Why  shouldn't  I  do  it  professionally?  The  audi 
ence  doesn't  care,  so  long  as  it  thinks  it's  getting  its  money's 
worth.  But  Dad  and  Mother  and  Everett  don't  know ;  I'm 
afraid  to  tell  them.  They  think  I  just  want  to  be  doing 
something.  And  perhaps  after  all  I  may  end  by  just 
teaching  dancing;  I  may  make  a  failure  on  the  stage," 
Sandra  ended  as  if  in  warning  to  herself.  Whatever  her 
other  limitations,  at  least  she  had  in  some  measure  the 
artist's  equipment  of  mingled  self-confidence  and  humility. 

The  preparations  went  forward,  their  simplicity  appall 
ing  Mrs.  Richard  whose  visits  to  New  York  had  always 
necessitated  lengthy  negotiations  about  clothes,  accommo 
dations  and  what-not.  But  Sandra  stood  firm ;  there  must 
be  nothing  new,  no  hats,  no  dresses;  she  would  have  the 
plain  room  in  the  plain  boarding-house  on  the  plain  side- 
street  where  "  nobody  "  lived  and  "  nobody  "  ever  went. 
As  it  was,  her  expenses  would  be  heavy  enough ;  some  day 
she  might  be  able  to  pay  Dad  back  — 

"  Sandra !     You  talk  like  a  working-girl !  "  her  mother 


146  THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY 

interposed,  horrified.  "Your  father  would  feel  terribly 
to  hear  you.  You  mustn't  say  anything  like  that  to  him 
—  about  paying  him  back !  You  mustn't  make  such  a  fuss 
about  money ;  it's  —  it's  sordid  —  it's  —  " 

"  Well,  I'm  playing  at  being  a  working-girl  for  a  while, 
you  know,  Mother,"  said  Sandra,  quickly,  regretting  her 
unwary  confidences,  smoothing  the  matter  over  as  best  she 
might.  "I  —  I  was  just  in  fun.  Be  careful  now,  Mrs. 
Boardman,  I'm  going  to  wool  you  around !  " 

The  day  before  she  went,  Sam  Thatcher  came  in  the 
smart  runabout  he  had  lately  treated  himself  to,  and  be 
sought  her  so  earnestly,  that  Sandra  yielded  against  her 
wiser  judgment,  and  ran  upstairs  and  got  her  last-season's 
motor-coat,  her  old  hat  that  her  mother  had  fruitlessly 
implored  her  to  throw  away,  and  went  out  with  him. 
"  He'll  be  so  busy  with  the  gears  and  things,  he  won't  have 
any  chance  to  get  foolish,"  she  thought.  In  fact,  Samuel 
was  quite  silent  and  preoccupied  during  the  first  part  of 
the  ride.  They  went  out  Adams  Road  to  the  open  country. 
It  was  November,  and  the  trees  and  hillsides  showed  every 
where  a  hectic  brightness  of  the  passing  year.  Troops  of 
children  were  out  nutting;  they  met  a  company  of  boy- 
scouts  on  a  hike ;  and  further  along  at  a  crossroads  came 
upon  the  spectacle  of  a  brother  runabout  inert  by  the 
road,  with  another  couple  like  themselves  standing  over 
it  as  at  the  bedside  of  a  dying  or  dead  friend. 

"  Engine's  gone  on  the  blink,"  the  young  man  explained 
succinctly,  when  Sam,  who  was  of  a  humane  disposition, 
slowed  down  to  inquire  what  was  the  matter,  and  if  he 
might  be  of  any  use.  "  I  can't  locate  the  trouble ;  she  just 
naturally  laid  down.  Look  here !  "  He  stooped  to  the 
crank  and  heaved  it  around  with  might  and  main ;  a  feeble 
mutter  arose,  swelled,  died  away  convulsively  somewhere 
within  the  mechanism;  the  car  somehow  took  on  a  more 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  147 

corpse-like  aspect  than  ever.  Its  owner  straightened  up, 
looking  at  Sam  obliquely  with  a  species  of  solemn  grin. 
"  The  gyasticutas  is  out  of  connection  with  the  hew- 
gag,"  said  he.  "  That's  the  way  I  figure  it !  " 

"  Let  me  try/'  said  Sam,  feeling  himself  challenged. 
He  jumped  out  and  applied  his  whole  strength  to  the  crank- 
ing-up  process  —  with  precisely  the  same  result. 

"  Nix !  "  said  the  other,  watching  him. 

"  You  are  a  stranger  around  here  ?  "  Sam  asked  him. 

"  More  or  less.  We're  touring  —  that  is,  we  were  tour 
ing  until  we  took  to  standing  still." 

"  Well,  I  was  going  to  say  that  you  aren't  too  far  out 
to  telephone  to  the  city  and  get  a  mechanic  here ;  it  wouldn't 
take  him  an  hour.  All  these  farmhouses  have  tele 
phones  —  " 

"I  thought  about  that,"  said  the  other  young  man; 
"  But  I  don't  like  to  go  off  hunting  a  telephone,  and  leave 
my  wife  sitting  here  all  by  herself ;  she'd  be  scared  to,  any 
way.  And  she's  no  good  at  walking — " 

"  Shoo,  I'd  just  as  lief,  Charlie,"  interrupted  the  young 
woman.  "  He  just  thinks  I  can't  walk  because  I've  got 
high  heels  on,"  she  added  to  Sandra  with  a  confidential 
smile.  "  Ain't  that  man  all  over,  though !  " 

"  Yeah,  I've  heard  that  before,  and  you  have  too,  likely," 
said  the  husband,  looking  at  Sam.  He  plunged  both  hands 
down  in  his  pockets  and  surveyed  the  automobile  phil 
osophically.  "  Here,"  said  he,  "  is  where  the  first  farmer 
that  comes  along  with  a  team  gets  ahead  about  twentv-five 
bucks  —  " 

"  Twenty-five !  Why  don't  you  hire  a  farmer  ?  You 
don't  have  to  buy  one !  "  said  Sam. 

"  I  guess  you've  never  had  much  experience  with  the 
merry,  merry  rustics,"  the  other  retorted,  obscurely. 
"  Here  come  some  of  'em  now !  " 


148  THE  BOABDMAST  FAMILY 

They  were  not  farmers,  however,  but  the  hand  of  boy- 
scouts.  They  came  up,  alertly  proffering  assistance,  half 
a  dozen  tanned,  sturdy  twelve-year-olds  in  their  khaki  and 
their  little  tramping  boots  of  which  they  were  visibly  proud, 
with  a  serious-faced  older  boy  in  spectacles  for  a  leader. 
And  altogether,  Sam  lending  a  hand,  they  propelled  the 
machine  off  of  the  "  right  of  way  "  as  the  boys  called  it 
with  a  great  display  of  technical  knowledge;  after  which 
first  one,  and  then  another  attempted  to  ( turn  her  over ' 
—  another  technicality  —  the  engine  steadily  refusing  to 
be  turned  over.  So  finally  at  Sam's  suggestion,  a  scout 
perched  on  the  running-board  of  his  car,  to  be  transported 
to  the  nearest  telephone ;  Sam  climbed  in  and  settled  him 
self  at  the  wheel;  the  boy  with  the  spectacles  obligingly 
cranked  for  him ;  the  remaining  scouts,  led  by  the  young 
man  and  his  wife,  gave  them  a  burlesque  cheer.  Looking 
back  from  the  next  rise,  Sandra  could  see  them  all  sitting 
in  a  row  on  the  rail  fence,  cheerfully  patient  to  see  the 
affair  through. 

"  It's  nice  of  you  boys  to  help  people  this  way,"  she  said 
to  their  scout  warmly.  "  I  suppose  that's  what  the  organ 
ization  is  for,  though,  isn't  it  ?  " 

"  Yeah.  It's  for  'most  anything,"  said  the  scout, 
vaguely.  "  Gee,  I  wisht  they'd  have  a  war,  though ! 
What  make's  this  machine,  mister  ?  " 

They  set  him  down  at  the  first  farmhouse,  and  after  a 
conference  with  an  old  woman  at  the  side-door,  he  shrilly 
reported  that  "  th'  folks  had  a  'phone  all  right."  They 
went  on. 

"  Those  were  nice  people,"  said  Sam,  turning  the  wheel. 
"  Lots  of  men  would  have  been  swearing  till  the  air  was 
blue,  but  he  took  it  as  a  kind  of  a  joke.  And  those  boys. 
Nice  people.  You  meet  all  kinds,  going  around  as  much 
as  I  do,  but  they're  mostly  nice,  I  think.  And  it's  funny 


THE  BOAKDHAN  FAMILY  149 

how  everybody  gets  together  to  help,  if  there's  trouble. 
You  don't  have  to  run  around  and  drum  them  up;  every 
body  pitches  in,  and  helps  the  one  nearest  him,  without 
being  told.  It  seems  to  be  instinctive.  I  was  in  a  train- 
wreck  once  — "  he  was  abruptly  silent,  having  perhaps 
evoked  dread  memories  and  pictures. 

Sandra  had  thought  the  stranded  tourists  rather  com 
mon;  their  very  good-nature  and  hail-fellow-well-met 
friendliness  stamped  them  of  the  lower  caste.  She  had 
been  about  to  say  so,  but  now  some  better  feeling  with 
held  her.  It  may  have  been  that  through  Sam's  uncal- 
culated  words,  as  through  the  flickering  of  a  camera-shutter, 
she  glimpsed  the  world  unrecognizably  illuminated,  or  an 
other  world  the  existence  of  which  she  had  only  lately 
begun  to  suspect. 

"  I  hope  they'll  get  the  mechanic,  and  get  their  machine 
fixed,"  she  said.  "  Oughtn't  we  to  turn  back  here  —  to 
go  back,  you  know  ?  " 

Sam  obediently  swung  the  car  around,  though  he  said : 
"  Why,  we  haven't  gone  any  distance.  Are  you  tired  ?  " 

"  No,  I  love  it !  But  it's  my  last  day  at  home.  I  feel 
as  if  I  shouldn't  stay  away  too  long." 

"  No  telling  when  I'll  see  you  again,  either,"  said  Sam. 
And  then,  on  a  sudden,  without  leading  up  to  it,  compar 
able  to  the  bolt  from  the  blue  of  which  we  have  all  heard : 
"  I  didn't  say  anything  when  you  first  told  me  —  that 
night  "  -  he  said  huskily ;  "  I  was  going  to  ask  you  then, 
but  it  didn't  seem  as  if  there  was  any  use,  after  the  way 
you  talked  and  felt.  I  —  I  wish  you'd  give  up  this  danc 
ing  scheme,  Sandra,  and  —  and  marry  me." 

"  Oh,  I  can't  do  that,  Sam,"  said  the  girl,  much  troubled. 
"  I  can't  do  that," 

"  Why  not  ?     Is  there  somebody  else  ?  " 

"  No,  no,  but  —  " 


150  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

"  You  just  don't  care  about  me,  is  that  it  ?  "  said  Sam, 
bravely. 

"  I'm  —  I'm  afraid  I  don't,"  Sandra  said,  not  knowing 
whether  she  spoke  the  truth  or  not;  tears  came  into  her 
eyes.  "  I  didn't  want  you  to  —  I  hate  to  have  you 
think  —  I  mean  I  didn't  mean  — "  she  stammered,  almost 
sobbing. 

"  That's  all  right,  I  know  you  didn't  mean  to,"  said  Sam, 
miraculously  comprehending.  "  You're  not  that  sort  of  a 
girl.  And  you  couldn't  have  stopped  me  anyhow,  Sandra 
—  I  couldn't  have  stopped  myself.  But  don't  you  think 
maybe  some  day  —  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  Sandra  said.  And  with  such  meagre 
comfort  as  he  could  get  from  that  half-admission,  Samuel 
had  to  be  content. 

She  went  to  bed  early  that  night ;  and  after  a  while  Mrs. 
Alexander  Boardman,  going  quietly  upstairs,  stopped  at 
her  granddaughter's  door  and  looked  in.  There  was  some 
disorder;  Sandra's  trunk  had  already  gone,  but  her  little 
valise  stood  open  on  a  chair,  waiting  for  the  last  odds  and 
ends ;  there  were  her  gloves  and  hat  and  her  nattily  rolled 
umbrella  laid  together.  Mrs.  Alexander  went  in  a  step ;  by 
the  light  from  the  hall  she  could  see  Sandra  sound  asleep, 
with  her  long,  thick,  black  hair  braided  and  tied  up  in  a 
ribbon,  lying  across  the  pillow ;  she  looked  very  small  and 
young.  On  the  night-stand  beside  the  bed,  there  was  the 
watch  her  father  had  given  her  on  her  nineteenth  birthday, 
a  girl's  watch  that  never  kept  time,  a  foolish  elegant  trifle ; 
and  there  was  a  half-eaten  apple  which  she  had  probably 
been  too  sleepy  to  finish.  Somehow  these  things,  this  in 
efficient  watch,  this  apple  with  a  bite  or  two  out  of  it,  sud 
denly  seemed  to  the  old  lady  poignantly  pathetic;  a  hun 
dred  times  she  had  seen  Sandra  thus  in  her  crib,  with  a  toy, 
a  cooky  alongside ;  Richard  too,  when  he  was  a  baby.  Old 


THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY  151 

Sarah  Chase  Board-man,  whose  past,  like  everybody's  past, 
must  have  held  some  unpleasing  chapters,  who  went  to 
church  and  subscribed  to  charities  and  practised  an  un 
swerving  courtesy  all  for  no  better  reason  than  because  it 
appeared  to  her  the  part  of  a  lady,  who  believed  nothing 
about  God  save  that,  if  He  existed,  He  must  surely  be  a 
gentleman  —  old  Sarah  Boardman  got  down  on  her  knees 
then  and  there  and  put  up  some  lame  petition  for  this 
young  girl. 

Mrs.  Richard,  passing  by,  saw  her  in  the  attitude  with 
surprise  and  alarm.  "  Good  gracious,  Mother,  what  is  the 
matter  ? "  she  wanted  to  know,  in  a  guarded  voice. 

"  Nothing,"  said  Mrs.  Alexander,  rising  stiffly.  "  I 
dropped  my  little  gold  pin.  Never  mind,  Lucy,  I  found 
it,  thank  you !  " 


PAKT  II 


CHAPTEE  I 

MISS  BOAKDMAN'S  principal  emotion  during  her 
journey  to  the  metropolis  and  in  the  first  days  of 
her  establishment  there,  was  one  of  wonder  and  satisfaction 
at  the  discovery  that  a  girl  of  her  "  set  "  could  travel  ahout 
this  country  unchaperoned  by  her  mother,  unprotected  by 
any  male  member  of  her  family,  under  nobody's  wing,  in 
short,  without  finding  herself  disagreeably  conspicuous, 
and  without  the  slightest  difficulty  in  making  arrangements 
about  her  tickets,  her  berth,  her  baggage,  all  the  suppos 
edly  intricate  details  which  hitherto  somebody  had  always 
attended  to  for  her.  Never  in  her  life  had  Alexandra  been 
allowed  to  go  fifty  miles  from  home  by  herself;  never  in 
her  life  had  she  been  ultimately  responsible  for  a  dollar, 
and  here  she  was  in  the  city  of  New  York,  with  the 
banking-association  cheques  her  father  had  given  her  still 
unscathed  in  her  handbag,  with  all  the  porters  and  baggage 
men  properly  tipped,  her  telegrams  to  the  anxious  people 
at  home  despatched,  her  hat  on  the  bed,  her  trunk  un 
strapped,  herself  in  as  good  order  outwardly  as  if  she  had 
been  managing  her  own  affairs  since  her  cradle!  In 
wardly,  to  be  sure,  she  quaked  with  the  sense  of  adventure 
and  loneliness ;  but  Sandra  was  not  likely  to  betray  herself. 
Indeed,  she  scarcely  would  have  known  how;  self-posses 
sion  is  the  first  commandment  taught,  the  first  habit  ac 
quired  by  young  women  of  her  class,  and  in  the  end  it 
becomes  second  nature.  Besides,  with  all  her  funny  pride 
in  the  capability  she  had  shown  thus  far,  the  girl  had 
enough  sense  of  humour  to  realize  that  the  achievement 
of  coming  all  the  way  to  New  York  by  herself  was  nothing 

155 


156  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

to  startle  the  world  with  —  not  the  world  wherein  she 
must  dwell,  at  all  events.  "An  ordinary  working-girl 
wouldn't  think  anything  of  it;  they  go  around  alone  all 
the  time,"  she  warned  herself ;  "  and  a  girl  like  that 
wouldn't  have  taken  a  taxi  from  the  station;  she'd  have 
walked  and  carried  her  bag  and  things,  and  saved  fifty 
cents.  I'll  do  that  another  time.  It's  queer,  I  have  to 
keep  reminding  myself  that  I'm  in  earnest  about  this 
thing.  It  seems  as  if  it  couldn't  be  true  somehow." 

Her  gaze  wandered  around  the  room.  There  was  no 
lack  of  atmosphere  about  it,  at  any  rate ;  it  was  the  classic 
resort  of  youthful  poverty  and  ambition,  a  hall  bedroom. 
Next  to  a  garret  there  is  no  locality  better  known  to  ro 
mance.  Nevertheless,  this  was  a  hall  bedroom  de  luxe  as 
one  might  say,  a  ten-dollar-a-week  hall  bedroom ;  by  Board- 
man  standards,  it  was  the  last  word  in  economy.  There 
was  a  window  in  one  end  of  it,  the  door  in  the  other,  and 
between,  ranged  along  the  parallel  walls,  on  one  side  a 
small  wardrobe,  an  iron  cot-bed,  a  desk;  on  the  other  a 
chest  of  drawers,  a  wash-stand,  Sandra's  trunk.  There 
was  space  for  a  single  chair,  and  Sandra  calculated  that  in 
the  aisle  between  these  articles  of  furniture  she  might 
practise  any  dance-step  that  did  not  require  too  much  pos 
turing.  From  the  window  one  looked  down  into  a  brick- 
paved  cubicle,  with  a  locust-tree  growing  grimily  out  of  a 
grimy  depression  in  the  middle  of  it,  upon  the  brick  walls 
crowned  with  broken  glass  which  divided  the  hollow  of  the 
square  into  other  cubicles,  upon  the  other  rear  windows, 
and  the  roofs  of  extensions  to  the  first  and  second  stories 
of  the  buildings.  Sandra  was  up  two  flights  of  stairs  from 
the  parlour-floor,  and  there  were  more  flights  both  above 
and  below.  Mounting  the  high  front  steps,  she  had  caught 
glimpses  of  faces  and  furnishings  in  the  basement;  and 
now  and  again  feet  sped  up  the  padded  stairs  outside  her 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  157 

door  to  unguessed  destinations  overhead.  The  arrange 
ment  recalled  the  circles  of  the  Inferno,  and  perhaps  there 
were  other  points  of  resemblance.  But  to  Sandra,  coming 
from  her  city  of  the  Middle  West  with  its  hill-tops  where 
"  everybody  "  lived,  among  lawns  and  trees,  the  New  York 
boarding-house  was  an  entertaining  novelty;  indeed,  she 
had  made  up  her  mind  to  be  interested  in  everything. 

A  card  on  the  white-painted  walls  of  her  cell  notified 
her  that  the  hours  for  meals  were  such  and  such,  that  there 
would  be  an  extra  charge  of  twenty-five  cents  for  trays  car 
ried  to  the  rooms,  and  that  guests  were  under  no  circum 
stances  allowed  to  do  laundry-work  in  the  bathrooms. 
This  last  Sandra  found  infinitely  diverting ;  as  if  anybody 
could  possibly  want  to  wash  anything  in  a  boarding-house 
bathroom!  She  told  her  grandmother  about  it  in  the 
letter  she  was  just  writing  .  .  .  "  As  this  is  Sunday, 
dinner  is  at  one  o'clock ;  but  when  I  dressed  and  went 
down  there  were  very  few  people  there,  and  no  Miss 
Thatcher.  Mrs.  Tower  says  she  is  out  of  town  for  the 
week-end.  The  dining-room  is  a  great,  huge  place  with 
the  walls  all  covered  with  weird-looking  fret-work  of  dark 
wood  with  mirrors  set  in  everywhere,  rather  like  an  old- 
style  Pullman  car.  I  don't  recognize  the  wood,  so  it's 
probably  what  Dad  calls  '  solid  pannyjambia.'  We  have 
little  tables  for  two  or  four,  which  is  much  nicer  than  I 
expected,  with  a  little  pressed-glass  candlestick  and  a  can 
dle  with  a  frowsy  pink  silk  shade,  on  each  table  —  terribly 
stylish !  I  had  my  table  all  to  myself,  in  fact,  I  had  the 
whole  dining-room  to  myself  for  a  while,  and  I  heard  Mrs. 
Tower  shouting  at  the  servants  in  the  pantry  and  sharpen 
ing  a  carving-knife  with  a  perfectly  ferocious  sound.  I 
know  it  was  she  and  I  know  she  did  the  carving,  for  all 
the  noise  stopped  the  minute  she  came  into  the  dining- 
room,  looking  very  warm  and  wiping  her  face.  And  right 


158  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

after  that  I  got  a  grand,  big  slab  of  rare  roast  beef,  luke 
warm,  to  be  sure,  but  good  enough.  I  am  telling  you  this 
so  that  Mother  can  see  I'm  being  properly  '  nourished ' 
as  all  the  hygiene  books  say.  Mrs.  Tower  is  stout  and 
grey-haired,  about  fifty,  I  think,  and  looks  as  if  she  had 
been  keeping  a  boarding-house  the  whole  fifty  years,  ever 
since  she  was  born.  The  only  other  '  guests  '  were  a  man 
and  his  wife  and  daughter  (I  suppose)  very  common  all 
of  them,  with  the  same  look  that  Mrs.  Tower  has,  only 
the  other  side.  I  mean,  as  if  they  had  boarded  all  their 
lives.  Mrs.  Tower  herself  has  a  round  table  in  the  bay- 
window  with  a  big-nosed  girl,  and  a  big-nosed  young  man 
sitting  with  her.  They  seem  like  a  family-party,  and  I 
heard  the  girl  call  Mrs.  Tower  '  Auntie  Lou '  but  the  man 
didn't  say  anything  but  'you'  to  either  one  of  them,  so 
I  couldn't  make  out  whether  he  and  the  girl  were  married 
or  engaged  or  nothing,  just  brother  and  sister. 

"  Tomorrow  I  am  going  over  to  36th  Street,  to  the 
Claude  School  (the  one  I  have  been  corresponding  with, 
you  know)  to  see  what  it  looks  like  and  what  M.  and  Mme. 
Claude  are  like,  and  to  make  an  appointment  for  an  en 
trance  examination.  I  think  I  will  take  my  ballet-slip 
pers  and  other  things  in  my  suitcase  as  the  place  isn't  far 
from  here,  and  I  can  easily  carry  them,  and  they  may  be 
ready  to  see  me  dance  at  once.  Their  prospectus  says  that 
entrance  examinations  are  optional  with  the  student,  so 
I  op  to  take  one;  the  idea  is  that  they  can  tell  how  you 
dance  simply  by  looking  at  you,  I  suppose,  but  it  must  be 
very  seldom  that  they  get  anybody  like  me.  I  thought  I 
would  take  that  MacDowell  music,  Oreadentanz,  and  the 
music  for  one  of  those  dances  I  made  up  myself,  the 
Scherzo  from  the  Fifth  Symphony,  maybe.  I  think  those 
are  the  best  things  I  do ;  only  hope  they'll  have  somebody 
there  that  can  play  them  for  me!  The  costumes  look 


THE  BOARDMAST  FAMILY  159 

rather  stringy  from  being  packed,  especially  the  Oread's 
green  chiffon,  and  her  wreath  of  oak-leaves  is  flattened 
out  like  this  sheet  of  paper,  but  I  think  I  can  work  it 
back  into  shape  again,  or  pin  it  around  my  head  so  that 
it  will  look  all  right,  and  chiffon  blows  and  floats  around 
so,  that  it  doesn't  make  much  difference  if  it  is 
stringy  .  .  . 

"  Later,  nine  o'clock  this  evening.  I've  met  Miss 
Thatcher.  She  came  back  in  time  for  Sunday  evening 
tea,  and  came  and  tapped  at  my  door,  before  she  had 
taken  any  of  her  things  off,  just  as  I  was  getting  the  cos 
tumes  out.  She  is  very  nice!  I  don't  know  why  I  was 
so  surprised;  I  must  have  been  expecting  her  to  be  prim 
and  teacher-y.  Of  course  she  is  old,  thirty-five,  at  least, 
but  she  doesn't  show  it  much,  and  was  dressed  in  beautiful 
taste,  a  black  suit  that  must  have  been  made  by  Sampson 
or  some  other  good  Fifth  Avenue  tailor,  and  perfectly 
lovely  black  furs,  and  a  hat  that  suited  her  and  was  put 
on  right.  She  has  red  hair,  and  a  darling  little  figure 
—  such  tiny  hands  and  feet,  and  wears  eyeglasses.  It 
sounds  funny  to  say  it,  but  I  was  a  good  deal  relieved ;  this 
place  had  seemed  rather  awful  at  first,  but  when  I  saw 
Miss  Thatcher,  I  thought,  '  Well,  if  she  can  stand  it,  I 
ought  to  be  able  to ! '  I  told  her  so,  and  she  laughed  and 
said  that  she  had  lived  here  several  years,  and  that  it  was 
as  good  as  any  New  York  boarding-house  could  be!  that 
is,  one  could  endure  it !  The  big-nosed  man  and  the  big- 
nosed  girl  aren't  related  to  each  other,  and  they  aren't 
married  yet,  but  they  are  going  to  be  as  soon  as  he  makes 
enough.  His  name  is  Gus  Beckley  and  he  is  a  book-keeper 
at  Me.  Chesney's,  and  hers  is  Mary  Schultze  and  she  is  a 
stenographer  in  some  lawyer's  office.  It  seems  almost 
everybody  in  the  house  —  all  the  women,  Miss  Thatcher 
says  —  does  something,  some  kind  of  work,  I  mean.  Miss 


160  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

Thatcher  says  there  are  always  a  good  many  women,  be 
cause  people  like  that  somehow  drift  together  in  places  like 
this;  women  hardly  ever  make  money  enough  to  have 
homes  of  their  own,  she  says  .  .  .  You  see  we  had  a 
grand  time  gossipping  about  the  other  boarders,  but  it  was 
my  own  doing,  really;  I  asked  her  to  tell  me.  I  wonder 
what  they  will  say  when  they  hear  what  I  do.  Miss 
Thatcher  didn't  seem  to  think  anything  of  it,  one  way  or 
the  other.  She  just  said,  '  I  understand  from  my  brother 
that  you  are  taking  up  dancing,'  and  went  on  talking  about 
something  else.  Of  course  she  may  feel  that  she  doesn't 
know  me  well  enough  to  say  anything;  or  perhaps  she 
simply  isn't  interested,  anyhow.  .  .  .  Afterwards  at  tea, 
I  half  expected  that  she  would  come  and  sit  with  me,  or 
offer  to,  but  she  didn't;  just  smiled  in  a  pleasant,  cool 
way,  and  went  past  to  her  own  table.  All  the  other  people 
were  there  and  some  more,  but  nobody  paid  any  attention 
to  me.  For  that  matter  I  noticed  that  very  few  of  them 
paid  any  attention  to  the  others  anyhow;  just  one  person 
here  and  there  spoke  to  somebody  else  at  another  table,  or 
nodded  as  Miss  Thatcher  did  to  me.  It's  so  odd.  I 
thought  that  everybody  in  boarding-houses  always  got  very 
friendly  right  away;  Mother  kept  warning  me  against 
that,  you  know;  she  thought  it  would  be  such  an  annoy 
ance.  But  if  they  keep  on  like  this,  she  doesn't  need  to 
worry  .  .  ." 

Possibly  Miss  Alexandra  Boardman  who  was  one  of  the 
Boardmans  whom  "  everybody  "  knew  or  knew  of,  whose 
doings  were  of  not  inconsiderable  interest  to  society,  whose 
acquaintance  had  been  more  or  less  diligently  sought  by 
people  not  so  fortunately  placed  —  possibly,  I  say,  the 
young  lady  went  to  bed  that  night  feeling  rather  lonesome. 
It  may  be  that  she  would  not  have  frowned  upon  those 
annoying  advances  which  her  mother  feared ;  one  may  read 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  161 

a  certain  nai've  surprise  and  discomfiture  in  the  tone  with 
which  she  announces  her  discoveries.  And  it  is  a  fact  that 
although  she  had  proclaimed  vigorously  before  leaving 
home  that  she  would  have  no  time  to  look  up  any  of  the 
school-friends  or  ex-residents  of  her  native  city,  now  living 
in  New  York,  and  did  not  expect  to  see  or  hear  of  them, 
Sandra  planned  calls  upon  half  a  dozen  before  she  fell 
asleep !  However,  the  morning  almost  always  brings  fresh 
council ;  and  she  got  up  and  dressed  and  packed  her  chiffons 
and  went  downstairs  to  breakfast  with  her  normal  views 
and  attitude  fully  restored,  so  that  she  received  the  ten 
tative  smile  of  the  big-nosed  girl  with  a  distant  courtesy 
which  ought  effectually  to  discourage  that  variety  of  an 
noyance,  though  carefully  graded  so  as  not  to  hurt  the 
other's  feelings.  Her  brother  Everett  himself  could  have 
done  no  better ! 

The  Claude  School  was  housed  in  another  tall,  narrow, 
four-stories-and-basement  building,  with  a  fagade  of  grey 
stone;  the  lower  ranges  of  windows  opened  inwards  with 
long  casements,  and  there  was  a  further  decoration  of 
stone  balustraded  balconies  and  small,  pointed,  dusty 
Christmas-trees  in  stone  pots.  It  was  entered  from  the 
sidewalk  level  by  two  doors ;  Sandra  read  on  a  typewritten 
slip  pasted  to  the  glass  panes  in  the  upper  part  of  the 
first  door  she  came  to :  "  Sain  Lippert  company  rehearsing 
take  the  other  entrance."  Not  being  a  member  of  the  Sam 
Lippert  company,  she  rang,  and  the  door  was  opened  by 
a  charwoman  with  a  bucket  and  rag.  Within  there  was  a 
Pompeian  looking  vestibule  with  a  mosaic  floor,  a  fountain 
in  the  middle  of  it,  a  stone  bench,  a  pair  of  wrought-iron 
torcheres,  all  in  a  space  not  more  than  eight  feet  square; 
and  closing  up  the  vista,  a  flight  of  steps  up  to  a  lauding 
with  rails  enclosing  a  desk  and  stool,  a  green-shaded  elec 
tric  light,  and  other  accessories  which  reminded  one  rather 


162  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

too  pointedly  of  a  ticket-office.  On  the  heels  of  the  char 
woman  there  came  from  some  cellar-like  retreat  behind 
the  steps  a  girl  about  Sandra's  own  age,  with  a  tremendous 
supply  of  light  auburn  hair  arranged  in  too  advanced  a 
mode  to  suit  Miss  Boardman's  fastidious  taste,  and  with 
furthermore  a  wide  mouth,  a  salient  nose  and  a  look  of 
race  so  pronounced  that  Sandra  was  not  at  all  surprised  on 
hearing  later  that  her  name  was  Alma  Marx.  She  sur 
veyed  the  newcomer  with  an  impersonal  interest. 

"  This  is  the  Claude  School  ? "  asked  Sandra,  in  some 
uncertainty. 

"  Yes.     I'm  the  secretary.     What  is  it,  please  ?  " 

"  Oh,  the  secretary  ?  Oh,  then,  you  know  about  me  al 
ready.  I'm  Miss  Boardman,"  said  Sandra  ingenuously 
supposing  this  to  be  a  complete  introduction. 

"  Miss  — ?  Beg  pardon  ?  "  said  the  other  girl,  with  a 
blank  look.  Her  face  brightened  a  little,  however,  when 
Sandra  reminded  her  of  their  correspondence.  "  Miss 
Boardman!  Oh,  yes,  I  remember!  Let's  see,  you're 
from  out  West  somewhere  —  Kansas  City,  isn't  it  ?  " 

Sandra  corrected  her,  with  a  return  of  last  night's  oddly 
discomfited  sensation.  "  Of  course  you  have  so  many  ap 
plications,  you  can't  remember  all  of  us,"  she  said,  trying 
to  laugh. 

"  No,  indeed !  "  assented  the  secretary  pleasantly ;  and 
she  nimbly  mounted  the  rostrum  at  the  top  of  the  steps. 
"  What  course  was  it  you  wanted  to  take  ?  I  guess  it  was 
the  regular  one  wasn't  it  ?  That's  twenty-five  dollars  for 
the  first  week,  and  fifteen  a  week  afterwards;  that  takes 
in  everything,  you  know."  She  opened  a  ledger,  got  a  pen 
in  readiness,  patted  down  her  blonde  coiffure,  all  with 
highly  efficient  movements,  and  gave  Sandra  a  wide  smile 
amiable  though  perfunctory. 

"  Well,  I  —  I  expected  to  see  Mr.  or  Mrs.  Claude  first," 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  163 

stammered  Sandra,  "I  thought  they  ought  to  see  me 
dance  —  " 

"  Oh,  they  aren't  here  —  they're  in  Europe.  It's  their 
school  still,  but  they  don't  come  here  any  more,"  Miss  Marx 
explained  unconcernedly.  She  seemed  to  have  acquired 
a  masterly  detachment,  owing,  without  doubt,  to  her  voca 
tion;  no  display  of  ignorance,  no  outlandish  requests  or 
behaviour  could  move  her  to  curiosity  or  impatience  or 
amusement.  "  Mr.  de  Voyna's  here,  of  course.  He  has 
the  ballet  class.  If  you  had  one  of  our  folders,  you  saw 
about  Mrs.  Perry's  work  —  the  interpretative  and  panto 
mime,  you  know  —  Mrs.  Elaine  Perry.  That's  part  of 
Mrs.  Palmer's  course  —  she  gives  that  and  the  social 
dancing.  It  all  comes  in  the  twenty-five  dollars  —  begin 
ning  with  twenty-five,  I  mean.  That's  the  one  everybody 
takes,  because  of  getting  so  much,  you  see.  It's  two  hours 
practice-class  every  day  except  Saturdays  and  Sundays. 
Unless  you  want  to  take  something  special  —  private  les 
sons,  you  know." 

Sandra  stood  for  an  instant,  dumb  before  this  cataract 
of  information.  All  at  once  she  saw  herself,  and  her 
aspirations,  and  her  local  celebrity,  and  her  suitcase  full 
of  costumes  dwindling  to  something  less  even  than  ab 
surdities.  "  Who  gives  the  private  lessons  ? "  she  finally 
managed  to  inquire. 

"  You  can  have  'em  of  any  of  the  instructors,"  said 
the  other  girl.  "  Ten  dollars  an  hour,  one  person,  one  les 
son,  you  know.  That's  from  Mr.  de  Voyna.  Of  course 
ball-room  dancing  is  less  —  six  for  thirty.  You  see  how 
much  more  you  get  for  your  money,  the  other  way.  We 
advise  everybody  to  take  the  regular  course.  Not  that  it 
makes  any  difference  to  us ;  we  just  consider  it's  for  your 
best  interests,  you  know.  You  can  take  anything  you 
want.  You  a  teacher  ?  " 


164:  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

"  I  • —  I  thought  of  teaching,"  said  Sandra,  meekly. 

"  Well,  the  regular  course  is  what  you  want,  then." 

Sandra  uttered  her  thought  aloud.  "  I  suppose  I'll  have 
to  make  a  beginning  somehow.  It  will  be  the  same  every 
where,"  she  said,  in  a  confusion  of  disappointment,  irres 
olution  and  doubt.  Nothing  could  be  simpler,  easier  of 
comprehension,  or  more  reasonable  than  the  proposals  of 
the  Claude  School ;  but  nothing  could  have  been  more  dif 
ferent  from  what  Sandra  had  expected,  and  rehearsed  in 
imagination.  If  it  was  to  be  merely  a  matter  of  going  to 
dancing-school  she  might  as  well  have  stayed  at  home,  and 
kept  on  with  Mademoiselle  Mantegna,  the  girl  thought  in 
a  kind  of  vexed  derision  of  herself.  She  was  helplessly 
aware  that  she  had  thought  nothing  out  in  detail  before 
hand,  for  all  the  fancied  thoroughness  of  her  preparations ; 
and  what  was  worse,  an  ignorance  and  inexperience  which 
loomed  more  monumental  every  moment  kept  her  from 
thinking  at  all  to  the  point  now.  She  did  not  know  what 
to  do,  and  stood  aghast  at  her  own  indecision.  Yet  it 
seemed  imperative  that  she  must  make  up  her  mind  some 
how;  truly  she  had  never  before  believed  that  time  was 
money,  but  with  every  second  that  went  by  leaving  her 
idle,  Sandra  felt  the  force  of  that  homely  aphorism. 

"  Oh,  yes,  the  rates  are  the  same,  but  you  don't  get  near 
so  much  at  the  other  schools,"  said  the  girl  at  the  desk; 
"  of  course  they'll  all  give  you  lessons  in  any  of  those 
branches,  but  our  system  grounds  you  thoroughly  in  all 
of  it,  and  then  you  can  go  on  and  specialize  afterwards  if 
you  want  to.  Then  there're  those  other  places  where  they 
advertise  they'll  teach  you  anything  for  fifty  cents;  I 
guess  you  don't  want  any  of  tliem.  They're  fierce  —  if 
you'll  excuse  that  slang/'  said  Miss  Marx,  smiling.  She 
reached  for  a  pad  of  receipt-blanks  with  so  frank  and  win- 


THE  BOARDMAlsr  FAMILY  165 

ning  a  confidence,  that  Sandra  got  out  her  purse  in  a 
state  of  hypnotic  obedience. 

"  There  didn't  seem  to  be  anything  else  to  do,"  she 
wrote  home.  "  I  didn't  feel  as  if  I  could  take  the  time  to 
go  running  all  over  New  York,  looking  up  the  other  places, 
particularly  as  I  was  sure  there  wouldn't  be  a  very  great 
difference.  After  Miss  Marx  had  got  me  '  signed  up  '  — 
if  you  II  excuse  that  slang!  —  I  asked  her  when  I  could 
begin,  and  she  said  right  then.  Mr.  de  Yoyna's  class  starts 
at  eleven  every  morning,  so  they  were  just  going  up.  I 
left  my  suitcase  and  things  in  a  dressing-room  they  have 
in  a  crypt  down  in  the  basement,  and  she  took  me  up  some 
more  steps  behind  the  desk  to  a  long  narrow  salon  done  in 
French  grey,  with  ever  so  many  mirrors  between  the  panels 
all  around  and  rows  of  slender  little  grey  chairs  along  the 
sides ;  it's  really  in  very  good  style,  or  would  be  if  they'd 
only  keep  the  floor  a  little  cleaner.  At  the  end  towards 
the  street  there  are  the  French  windows  I  noticed  from 
the  outside,  and  a  raised  platform  with  a  piano  and  one 
of  the  large-sized  Victorgraphs ;  and  this  morning  there 
was  a  squabby  little  fat  girl,  another  Jewess  by  her  looks, 
arranging  some  music  with  two  other  girls  loafing  around 
talking  to  her.  They  all  three  hailed  Miss  Marx  very 
jordially,  and  never  even  glanced  at  me !  I  suppose  they're 
used  to  seeing  new  students  coming  and  going  all  the  time. 
It  turned  out  that  the  fat  one  was  the  pianist  and  was  just 
getting  ready  for  the  morning  class,  so  Miss  Marx  handed 
me  over  to  her,  and  went  back  to  her  desk.  The  pianist 
and  the  two  other  girls  who  acted  as  if  they  knew  all  about 
it  went  along  talking  and  laughing  together,  and  I  trailed 
after  them,  through  a  door  in  the  other  end  of  the  salon, 
which  I  rather  expected  to  open  into  another  salon  in  white 
and  gold  perhaps,  like  the  pictures  of  Parisian  interiors 


166  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

in  ' Vogue.'  Well,  it  didn't!  All  the  magnificence 
stopped  off  short  on  the  other  side  of  that  door.  There 
was  a  little,  dark,  smelly  sort  of  a  pantry  with  a  tin  water- 
cooler;  and  we  went  through  that  into  a  lot  of  long,  dark, 
dirty,  tenement-house-y  halls  and  stairways  with  a  light- 
shaft  in  the  middle,  and  rags  stuffed  into  broken  window- 
panes,  and  more  rags  and  dirty  papers  and  rubbish  every 
where.  One  place  I  looked  through  one  of  the  inside  win 
dows  and  saw  a  rough-and-ready  kitchen  fixed  up  in  a  room, 
and  a  fat  woman  washing  mountains  of  dishes.  All  this 
while  we  kept  passing  troops  of  weird-looking  people, 
mostly  girls  going  up  or  down,  and  when  we  got  higher 
up,  we  could  hear  a  piano  thumping  away,  and  some  man's 
voice  shouting  orders,  and  lots  of  people  singing  choruses 
awfully  off  the  key.  The  other  girls  said  it  was  the  Sam 
Lippert  show  rehearsing;  and  I  could  tell  by  their  expres 
sion  and  the  way  they  spoke  that  they  thought  the  Sam 
Lippert  show  and  everybody  connected  with  it  simply  too 
low-down  for  words ! 

"  At  last  we  came  to  a  loft  at  the  top  of  the  building, 
and  there  were  the  class  and  Mr.  de  Voyna  himself.  This 
place  has  whitewashed  walls  with  posts  here  and  there  to 
hold  the  roof  up;  tnere  is  some  kind  of  brown  burlap 
stretched  tight  like  a  carpet  on  the  part  of  the  floor  where 
we  dance,  and  hand-holds  fixed  to  the  posts  and  walls,  for 
the  ballet-dancers  to  steady  themselves  by,  and  if  you'll 
believe  me,  more  mirrors!  Only  these  are  just  pieces  of 
looking-glass  ,  some  of  them  broken  into  all  kinds  of  shapes, 
and  there  are  no  frames. 

"  Mr.  de  Voyna,  who  is  said  in  the  prospectus  to  have 
been  a  member  of  the  Russian  Imperial  Ballet  at  Warsaw, 
and  a  dancing- partner  of  Julie  Sedova,  is  a  little  bald, 
and  getting  stout  and  wears  eyeglasses!  He  has  a  very 
nice  face,  though ;  you  would  take  him  for  a  doctor.  He 


THE  BOAEDMAtf  FAMILY  167 

wears  knee-breeches,  and  carries  a  little  wand  that  he 
uses  in  directing  us.  There  are  about  a  dozen  in  the  class ; 
the  two  girls  that  came  with  me,  a  tall  Irish-looking  girl 
that  looks  exactly  like  some  dining-room  maid  we  have 
had,  two  little  snub-nosed  ones,  a  very  pretty  one  with  black 
hair,  one  woman  of  sixty !  —  she  looks  it  anyhow  —  and 
another  about  thirty-five.  They  had  on  all  kinds  of  clothes, 
middies  and  bloomers,  bathing-suits,  everything  you  can 
think  of,  except  the  two  old  ones  who  were  in  cheesecloth 
draperies  a  la  Isadora  Duncan !  This  is  my  class ;  I  was 
going  to  say  you  must  fix  them  in  your  mind,  but  some 
how  I  can't  fix  them  in  my  own.  I  don't  know  any  of 
their  names,  of  course,  as  yet,  but  that's  of  no  importance. 
I  can't  imagine  meeting  them  anywhere  else  or  knowing 
them  outside  the  school.  They're  all  just  as  respectable 
as  they  can  be,  they  dress  nicely  on  the  street,  and  I'm  sure 
they  have  good  table-manners ;  but  it's  the  strangest  thing, 
I  can't  picture  to  myself  who  they  are  and  where  they 
come  from.  They  aren't  in  the  least  like  shopgirls  or 
trained  nurses  or  stenographers;  they're  very  much  above 
cooks  and  hairdressers  and  dressmakers ;  I  think  they  must 
be  the  people  that  the  Ladies'  Domestic  Monthly  is  pub 
lished  for. 

"  Mr.  de  Voyna  doesn't  bother  about  names  either.  He 
calls  us,  l  Miss  Tennessee,'  '  Miss  Albany,'  and  so  on, 
speaking  English  very  well,  with  only  a  slight  accent.  He 
just  put  us  through  the  ordinary  exercises ;  and  once  while 
we  were  resting,  he  actually  strolled  over  to  me  and  said, 
'You  are  Mees— ?'  I  said,  '  I'm  Miss  Ohio.'  'So? 
You  have  danced  before,  Mees  Ohio  ? '  I  said  '  Yes,'  and 
that  ended  the  conversation.  He  strolled  off  again,  and 
did  a  little  practising  by  himself,  pirouetting  in  front  of 
one  of  the  slabs  of  looking-glass,  and  I  must  say  he  pirou 
etted  beautifully,  eyeglasses  and  bald  spot  and  all.  This 


168  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

is  the  first  (and  so  far  the  last)  notice  anybody  has  taken 
of  me,  and  it  didn't  amount  to  an  ovation,  as  you  see. 
However,  IVe  begun  to  realize  that  a  rhinoceros  might  go 
waltzing  up  Fifth  Avenue  on  its  hind  legs,  and  nobody 
would  turn  around  to  look  at  it  twice;  so  you  needn't  won 
der  that  I  was  so  perfectly  paralyzed  at  Mr.  de  Voyna's 
seeing  me,  let  alone  speaking  to  me,  that  I  had  to  write  to 
you  about  it. 

"...  After  the  hour  with  Mr.  de  Voyna  was  up, 
we  went  down  to  the  crypt  and  changed  our  clothes.  That 
is,  the  others  did.  I  had  to  dance  in  my  shirt-waist  and 
skirt,  as  I  hadn't  brought  anything  else,  except  ballet- 
slippers  ;  and  let  me  tell  you  it's  some  stunt  to  do  a  grande 
echappe  where  your  legs  are  as  far  apart  as  they  can  go, 
with  a  tight  tailor-suit  skirt  on!  Oh,  I  forgot!  Excuse 
that  slang!  We  don't  use  slang  at  all  in  the  Claude  School, 
or  if  we  do,  we  apologize  profoundly.  Everybody  is  just 
as  careful  and  correct  as  can  be  ...  The  next  thing  we 
went  up  to  the  grey  salon  to  Mrs.  Palmer's  class.  She  is 
on  the  Goddess  of  Liberty  style  as  to  figure  and  weight, 
but  with  a  rather  babyish,  pretty  little  face.  Some  more 
people  now  turned  up,  a  sort  of  youngish-middle-aged 
woman  in  a  changeable  blue  taffeta  one-piece  dress  and 
soiled  white  boots,  one  or  two  mothers  who  didn't  take 
the  lesson,  but  sat  at  the  sides  and  looked  on,  as  they  might 
have  done  in  any  dancing-school,  and  two  men.  One  of 
them  was  young  and  ordinarily  nice-looking;  he  was  just 
like  al1  the  rest  of  them,  I  don't  know  where  he  belongs,  I 
can't  place  him.  But  I  judged  from  his  reckless  courage 
in  coming  to  a  class  of  women,  and  from  the  fact  that  he 
seemed  to  know  most  of  them,  that  he  might  be  some  per 
son  in  the  '  perfesh  '  —  a  teacher,  perhaps,  from  out  of 
town,  brushing  up,  or  learning  the  latest  steps.  The  other 
man  wasn't  a  dancer,  whatever  he  was  —  too  old  and  heavy- 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  169 

set,  with  a  shoe-brush  moustache.  He  didn't  seem  to  be 
anybody's  father,  either;  I  don't  know  who  he  was.  I 
don't  know  whether  I'll  ever  find  out  who  anybody  is ! 
He  didn't  talk  to  any  one  except  to  Mrs.  Palmer,  just  sat 
and  fingered  his  shoe-brush. 

"  '  Class  on  the  floor,  please ! '  said  Mrs.  Palmer,  so  we 
all  stood  up  in  a  row,  and  she  stood  by  herself  on  the 
other  side  of  the  room,  facing  us,  and  the  pianist  (her 
name  is  Stella  Lipmann)  began  a  little,  trilling,  piping 
tune,  and  I  thought :  '  Well,  here  goes !  But  what  sort  of 
waltz  or  fox-trot  can  they  be  going  to  dance  to  that  ? ' 
Justement,  as  Mademoiselle  used  to  say,  we  didn't  dance 
to  it !  Mrs.  Palmer  began  to  recite,  with  gestures  and 
poses,  and  we  all  gestured  and  posed  after  her. 

" '  I  am  Syrinx,  soul  of  the  reed, 
In  me  the  rhythm  of  Life  is  freed. 
The  immortal  Mu-u-u-sic  all  men  know 
Lurks  at  my  lip,  but  a  god  must  blow.' " 

"  There's  a  lot  more ;  I  copied  it  out  of  another  girl's 
book ;  we're  expected  to  memorize  it,  you  know.  However, 
one  verse  will  be  enough  for  you ;  one  verse  is  one  too  many 
for  anybody,  /  think.  Mrs.  Palmer  elocutes  grandly, 
bearing  down  hard  on  all  the  big,  important  words  and  sort 
of  whispering  the  rest,  and  rounding  her  eyes,  and  waving 
her  big  white  arms,  while  the  accompaniment  —  which  is 
really  very  pretty  and  musical  —  tee-diddles  along.  1 1 
am  Syrinx,  soul  of  the  reed ! '  says  Mrs.  P.  reaching  up 
above  her  head  and  soul.  i  Now  push,  girls,  push  up  with 
your  hand  like  this ! '  And  we  all  pushed  with  might  and 
main.  I  thought  it  wasn't  a  bad  idea  to  push  your  soul 
up ;  maybe  it  needs  it.  But  when  she  came  to  i  Lurks  at 
my  lip/  she  made  a  gesture  for  all  the  world  like  taking 
pins  out  of  her  mouth ;  just  as  if  nobody  would  know  where 


170  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

or  what  a  lip  was  if  she  didn't  point  it  out !  We  all  cop 
ied  her  religiously,  the  whole  roomful  taking  pins  out  of 
their  mouths  .  .  . 

"  The  blue-taffeta  woman  dropped  out  early  in  the  pro 
ceedings  with  a  very  snippy  expression.  She  sat  down 
with  the  other  women,  and  I  heard  her  saying  to  her  nearest 
neighbour  that  this  was  all  nonsense. 

"  '  Oh,  my,  I  think  it's  just  beautiful ! '  said  the  other 
woman.  She  is  the  mother  of  one  of  the  snub-nosed  girls, 
and  anything  that  child  does  is  beautiful  to  her,  you  can 
see  that.  I  thought  it  was  very  sweet  to  see  her  eyes  fol 
low  little  Miss  Snub-nose  around  the  room. 

" '  Well,  you  try  it  on  a  lot  of  society  women,  and  see 
'em  laugh  at  you ! '  said  Blue-taffeta.  '  They  don't  want 
to  interpret  poetry,  they  want  to  dance.  What's  a  dancing- 
school  for  anyhow?  I've  got  one  down  in  Waco,  Texas, 
and  I  don't  come  all  the  way  to  New  York  to  fool  away  my 
time  on  this  stuff.  If  it  wasn't  for  Mrs.  Palmer  reciting, 
you'd  think  they  were  all  hanging  out  the  wash.  Inter 
pretative,  huh ! ' 

.  .  .  "  The  shoe-brush  man  made  one  solitary  remark. 
It  was  when  Mrs.  Palmer  came  to  a  line  like  this : 

" '  For  ever  the  dry  cicada  sings, 

And  the  sultry  locust  flaps  its  wings.' 

He  said :  '  Locusts  don't  make  that  gritty  sound  with  their 
wings.  They  make  it  with  their  hind-legs." 

.  .  .  "  It  seems  this  is  Mrs.  Elaine  Perry's  work.  I 
feel  about  it  a  good  deal  as  Blue-'taffeta  does.  However,  if 
it  all  com.es  in  the  course,  I  suppose  I  might  as  well  go  on 
with  it.  Finally  we  got  to  the  ball-room  dancing,  and  Mrs. 
Palmer  really  did  teach  us  something.  I  mean  new  fig 
ures  and  combinations  of  steps,  you  know;  she  can  dance, 
if  she  does  weigh  a  hundred  and  sixty  ...  I  danced 


THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY  171 

most  of  the  time  with  the  young  man,  and  he  thanked  me 
very  carefully  after  we  got  through.  Everybody  is  pain 
fully  polite  .  .  .  As  I  went  out,  I  saw  another  man 
sitting  at  a  desk  in  one  of  the  basement  rooms,  looking 
awfully  busy  and  important,  talking  to  Mrs.  Palmer. 
Who  do  you  suppose  he  is  ?  Mr.  Palmer  ?  .  .  . 

"  I  told  you  wrong ;  somebody  else  beside  Mr.  de  Voyna 
saw  me.  It  was  Shoe-brush  Moustache,  Esquire.  He  was 
standing  on  the  corner  of  the  Avenue  waiting  for  the  'bus, 
I  think,  when  I  passed.  He  looked  at  me  very  hard,  but 
not  impudently,  and  started  to  take  off  his  hat,  and  hes 
itated,  and  started  again,  so  I  bowed  to  save  him  any  more 
embarrassment  —  for  he  was  quite  red  in  the  face  by  that 
time,  and  in  a  dreadful  confusion  —  and  he  got  the  hat 
all  the  way  off  at  last,  and  seemed  relieved  ..." 


CHAPTER  II 

BY  the  end  of  a  month  or  so,  Sandra  had  settled  down 
to  the  new  life,  albeit  feeling  herself  "  very  much 
outside  of  it  all,"  as  she  privately  described  her  situation. 
She  knew  more  names  among  her  fellow-boarders  and 
fellow-pupils,  but  without  really  knowing  their  owners; 
and  she  had  ceased  to  be  disconcerted  by  the  indifference 
with  which  they  accepted  her,  name  and  all.  Even  Miss 
Thatcher,  from  whom  at  least  some  show  of  interest  might 
have  been  expected,  remained  pleasantly  aloof;  her  im 
personal  kindness  gave  the  same  impression  as  the  im 
personal  disregard  of  the  others,  namely,  that  life  was 
already  too  crowded  and  too  occupied  to  allow  of  any  en 
largement.  Sandra  divined  that  she  was  lost  among  count 
less  circles  of  people  whose  friends,  affairs,  opinions,  likes 
and  dislikes  were  all  definitely  arranged,  so  that  they  had 
no  desire  or  incentive  to  break  through  or  expand;  every 
circle  and  every  single  soul  in  it,  she  fancied  complete  and 
isolated  as  an  electric-light  bulb,  and  as  incandescent. 
She  was  "  on  the  outside/'  not  because  of  their  ill-will, 
for  they  had  no  more  feeling  against  than  for  her ;  they  did 
not,  in  fact  could  not,  think  about  her  at  all.  Even  among 
the  old-time  acquaintances  whom  from  time  to  time  she 
was  driven  to  hunt  up,  the  girl  sensed  the  same  atmosphere, 
though  they  one  and  all  painstakingly  did  their  social 
duty,  "  showing  her  some  attention  "  —  Sandra  knew  full 
well  the  very  phrase  in  which  they  would  refer  to  these 
efforts.  She  was  wise  enough  in  the  ways  of  her  own 
world;  and,  remembering  the  treatment  she  herself  had 
accorded  "  outsiders  "  back  there  at  home  in  days  which 

172 


THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY  173 

were  already  beginning  to  seem  distant,  the  ironic  aspect 
of  her  present  position  did  not  escape  her.  "  How  we  used 
to  laugh  at  them !  "  she  thought ;  "  how  we  used  to  call 
them  climbers,  and  talk  about  their  trying  to  get  in  and 
all  that !  How  bored  Mother  is  often  when  she  has  to  go 
and  call  on  strangers,  and  "  show  them  some  attention !  " 
All  the  while  the  poor  things  are  horribly  lonesome.  It 
doesn't  make  any  difference  how  nice  they  are;  we  don't 
care  to  find  out ;  we  deliberately  don't  want  to  bother  know 
ing  them.  Now  I  know  how  they  feel.  I  never  thought 
about  it  before ;  it  seems  inhuman.  But  you  can't  blame 
people ;  one  can't  know  everybody,"  Alexandra  would  wind 
up,  sagely,  returning  to  the  shibboleth  of  her  class. 
"  And  anyhow  I'm  not  here  to  do  society.  I'm  here  to 
work." 

This  work,  meanwhile,  progressed  on  the  whole  satis 
factorily;  that  is  to  say,  Sandra  was  conscious  that  if  she 
was  not  being  singled  out  for  notice,  she  was  nevertheless, 
not  being  overlooked.  In  fact,  in  gymnasium  costume, 
her  black  locks  bound  up  in  a  cardinal  ribbon,  under  which 
her  face  always  of  a  clear  pallor  with  irregular  mobile 
features  and  darting  black  eyes,  appeared  disturbingly 
brilliant,  Sandra,  poising,  leaping,  alighting,  balancing  to 
the  music  with  an  arrowy  grace  and  directness,  was  not  a 
figure  to  pass  unremarked.  She  had  the  distinction  not 
merely  of  doing  the  thing  well,  but  of  doing  it  with  an 
ineffable  air  of  ease,  authority,  spontaneity,  a  delicate  aban 
don,  a  careless  yet  unerring  taste.  That  she  displayed  in 
the  performance  of  routine  ballet-exercises  (grandes 
echappes,  for  instance!)  and  ball-room  steps  that  rare  en 
dowment  of  intelligence  and  romantic  feeling  which  people 
call  the  artistic  temperament,  is  a  statement  which  Sandra 
herself  would  have  received  with  laughter;  yet  without 
doubt  it  was  that  very  quality  which  set  her  so  apart  from 


174  THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY 

the  others  that  they  themselves  perceived  it.  From  casual 
notice  of  the  facts  that  she  never  seemed  to  get  out  of 
breath,  never  changed  colour,  "  picked  up  "  a  step  at  a 
single  demonstration  and  never  forgot  it  thereafter,  and 
could  stand  on  one  foot,  and  hold  by  the  ankle  the  other 
leg  extended  level  with  her  hip  at  the  first  trial  with  no 
apparent  effort,  they  progressed  to  an  inquisitive  wonder, 
tinted  with  suspicion. 

"  You've  been  on  the  stage  ?  "  the  pretty,  dark  girl  asked, 
or  rather  asserted  one  day.  "  I  know  I've  seen  you  be 
fore." 

Sandra  acknowledged  that  she  had  danced  publicly  at 
home — "for  charities,  and  things  like  that,  you  know." 

"  Well,  it  couldn't  have  been  there  that  I  saw  you.  I've 
never  been  there,"  said  the  other  girl,  eyeing  her  uncon 
vinced  j  "  but  I  know  I  have.  You're  sure  you  haven't 
been  on  the  stage?  Maybe  it  was  some  place  else  then 
—  at  the  Cataracts,  or  the  Crystal  Room,  or  somewhere. 
Oh,  /  remember!  You  used  to  be  Thorley's  dancing 
partner,  weren't  you  ?  "  She  would  not  believe  Sandra's 
smiling  denial.  "  Mr.  de  Voyna  said  you  must  have  been 
on  the  stage,"  she  insisted. 

"  Did  he  ?  "  said  Sandra,  taken  by  surprise.  De  Voyna 
had  scarcely  spoken  to  her  since  the  first  lesson ;  certainly 
he  had  looked  at  her,  had  watched  her  indeed  very  sharply 
and  steadily  now  and  then,  but  she  supposed  he  passed 
them  all  in  review  after  the  same  fashion,  and  would  not 
have  been  embarrassed  by  it  in  any  event.  In  spite  of  the 
artistic  conscience  that  never  let  her  rest,  that  urged  her 
unremittingly  to  a  finer  endeavour,  Sandra  was  capable 
of  saying  to  herself  coolly  that  de  Voyna  would  find  no 
one  in  the  class  who  was  doing  better  than  herself,  no 
one  who  was  doing  half  so  well,  no  one  who  could  touch 
her!  Let  him  watch! 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  175 

This  same  day,  as  they  were  practising,  there  presented 
themselves  at  the  studio  —  such,  it  developed,  was  the 
technical  title  for  Mr.  de  Voyna's  loft  —  two  young  girls 
and  a  young  man,  who,  after  some  low-voiced  conference 
with  the  ballet-master,  went  and  sat  down  in  a  corner, 
obviously  waiting  till  the  lesson  should  be  over.  This 
sort  of  audience  was  no  new  thing  to  Mr.  de  Voyna's 
assemblage  of  coryphees;  relatives  or  acquaintances  of 
their  own,  stray  members  of  the  Sam  Lippert  company 
(which  still  kept  up  an  energetic  rehearsing  overhead) 
prospective  students  with  their  relatives  and  acquaintances, 
detached  individuals  on  no  specific  errand  apparently,  like 
the  man  with  the  shoe-brush  moustache,  were  for  ever 
loitering  in,  staying  a  while,  loitering  out  again.  The 
classes  worked  on,  oblivious;  the  visitors  themselves,  for 
that  matter,  never  seemed  to  be  particularly  interested. 
In  the  antique  phrase,  they  cared  for  nobody,  no,  not  they, 
and  nobody  cared  for  them!  To  Sandra,  it  was  only 
another  manifestation  of  the  metropolitan  habit  and  usage 
which  she  herself  was  rapidly  acquiring.  But  today, 
during  the  ten  minutes'  rest,  one  of  the  girls  whispered 
around  the  information  that  this  trio  wanted  to  dance  for 
de  Voyna. 

"  At  least,  one  of  them  is  going  to,"  she  amended.  "  I 
think  it's  that  youngest  girl  —  the  one  with  the  white 
Angora  fuzzy  stuff  on  her  coat.  The  other  two  brought 
her;  they  want  to  get  her  in  the  grand-opera  ballet.  I 
couldn't  hear  all  they  said  —  a  person  doesn't  want  to 
hang  around  and  listen,  you  know  —  but  I  think  that's 
what  they  were  talking  about." 

Sandra  heard  her  alertly.  She  herself  had  not  thought 
of  asking  for  an  audience  with  de  Voyna,  having  her 
mind  fixed  on  the  Claude  couple,  Monsieur  and  Madame, 
who  were  still  in  Europe.  As  time  went  on,  and  the 


176  THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY 

gossip  of  the  school  bubbled  about  her,  Sandra  gradually 
received  further  enlightenment  about  these  famous  and 
wonderful  artists.  It  transpired  that  they  lent  the  school 
their  name,  precisely  as  they  lent  their  name  to  a  number 
of  other  worthy  enterprises,  with  which  they  had  no  actual 
connection,  Claude  hats,  Claude  corsets,  Claude  pumps  — 
lent  being,  Sandra  was  told,  a  euphemism  for  sold. 
Never  were  people  more  widely,  more  skilfully,  or  more 
profitably  advertised.  Nor,  when  all  is  said,  was  any 
body  wronged  by  this  piece  of  amiable  obliquity;  the 
Claude  pumps  and  corsets  were  very  likely  good  pumps  and 
corsets,  even  as  the  Claude  dancing-school  was  a  good 
dancing-school ;  it  did  everything  that  it  professed  to  do, 
Sandra  thought  reasonably.  There  was  a  good  deal  of 
sharp  comment  among  her  fellow-students  as  to  an  alleged 
]ack  of  appreciation  suffered  by  Mrs.  Palmer.  Why  wasn't 
it  called  the  Palmer  School,  they  demanded;  she  was 
the  mainstay  of  the  place ;  just  let  her  take  another  posi 
tion  and  people  would  see  how  much  the  Claude  name 
amounted  to;  all  the  Claudes  did  was  to  take  down  the 
money  —  excuse  that  slang !  They  prophesied  freely  that 
it  couldn't  go  on  long  this  way;  the  Claudes  had  passed 
the  height  of  their  popularity;  they  hadn't  introduced 
anything  new  lately;  and  so  forth  and  so  on.  They  were 
quite  fiercely  partisan,  all  knowing  one  another  well,  and 
speaking  freely  before  and  to  Sandra,  who  must  necessarily 
keep  silence,  not  being  so  conversant  with  these  facts  as  the 
rest.  It  abated  her  feeling  of  loneliness,  however,  to  be 
thus  accepted  by  any  circle  amongst  this  vast  agglomera 
tion  of  circles ;  she  would  not  have  thought  so  a  few  weeks 
earlier,  but  possibly  Sandra's  feelings  and  points  of  view 
were  undergoing  some  subtle  alteration.  Sundry  ideas 
had  insinuated  themselves  to  her,  which  would  have  caused 
preceding  generations  of  Boardmans  to  turn  over,  scandal- 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  177 

ized,  in  their  graves  —  if  all  theories  about  the  departed 
be  correct.  For  instance,  the  young  woman  not  only 
thought  about  money  but  would  discuss  it  openly ;  and,  in 
considering  Mrs.  Palmer's  case,  Sandra  would  say  to  her 
self  with  a  shrewdness  and  a  business-instinct  appalling 
to  discover  in  a  gentleman's  daughter,  that  the  Syrinx  — 
which  was  her  profane  nickname  for  Mrs.  Palmer  —  was 
not  wasting  away  under  carking  cares ;  on  the  contrary  she 
had  a  pretty  good  thing !  And  there  might  be  worse  ways 
of  making  a  living  than  being  at  the  head  of  a  school  which 
charged  twenty-five  dollars  for  the  first  week  and  fifteen 
weekly  thereafter,  to  say  nothing  of  the  altitudinous 
private  lessons  and  special  courses,  even  if  one  had  to 
divide  up  with  a  set  of  Claudes.  Numbers  of  eminent 
artists  ended  their  careers  by  teaching;  as  well  begin  that 
way.  At  any  rate,  it  was  always  a  recourse.  She  was  of 
the  same  mind  with  that  other  philosophical  adventurer 
amongst  the  arts  who  pointed  out  that  when  poetry  fails 
there  is  always  the  wash-tub. 

Here,  however,  was  a  new  idea.  There  might  be  no 
Claudes  to  dance  for,  but  there  was  de  Voyna,  who  was 
just  as  good  a  critic,  and  whose  word  —  since  they  brought 
grand-opera  aspirants  to  him  —  must  be  of  just  as  much 
weight.  Sandra  scanned  the  other  girl  appraisingly. 
She  was  eighteen  or  so,  not  particularly  good-  or  ill-look 
ing,  not  particularly  well  or  badly  dressed,  ordinarily 
rouged  and  powdered,  with  a  face  just  now  entirely  ex 
pressionless.  Her  companions  matched  her.  Sandra 
found  herself  as  usual  unable  to  classify  these  people; 
she  could  not  guess  who  they  were,  whence  they,  came, 
and  what  their  homes  and  friends  were  like  or  what  their 
normal  occupations.  New  York  City  swarmed  with  them ; 
she  herself  might  be  taken  for  one  of  them  by  people 
who  didn't  know,  she  thought;  and,  with  a  slight  start, 


178  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

remembered  that  nobody  did  know.  To  all  intents  and 
purposes  she  was  one  of  them. 

"  Let's  stay  and  see  her  dance/''  suggested  the  Irish- 
looking  girl  whose  name,  Sandra  had  recently  discovered 
was  not  Eyan  or  Conroy  as  might  have  been  expected, 
but  Schwab!  So  the  class  withdrew  to  its  accustomed 
roosts  on  the  window-sills  and  the  few  rickety  chairs  of 
the  studio,  the  unknown  tucked  up  her  skirt  which  was 
already  sufficiently  short,  and  rather  too  narrow  in  accord 
ance  with  that  season's  fashion,  removed  her  walking- 
shoes  and  tied  on  a  pair  of  ballet-slippers  with  the  help 
of  her  friends,  and  Miss  Lipmann  began  the  ballet-music 
from  "  Sylvia." 

It  was,  Sandra  coldly  decided,  just  the  performance  to 
be  looked  for;  not  particularly  good,  not  particularly  bad, 
like  the  dancer's  own  appearance;  of  no  character  at  all. 
"  She  hasn't  an  idea  in  her  head  about  it,"  thought  this 
ruthless  young  critic  contemptuously.  "  She  can  move  in 
time  to  the  music,  but  she  doesn't  feel  it,  any  more  than 
those  dolls  they  fasten  to  the  Victorgraph  discs.  She 
smiles  and  shows  her  teeth,  because  she's  been  told  to  — 
and  it's  never  once  occurred  to  her  that  you  can  show 
other  feelings  in  other  ways.  You  don't  have  to  smile  all 
the  time.  It's  stupid.  Dancing  isn't  just  steps  and  mo 
tions;  she  ought  to  Jcnow  that.  She's  studied  hard,  but 
she  hasn't  seen  into  it  somehow.  If  you  can't  be  original, 
you  can  at  least  pick  out  the  right  person  to  imitate,  but 
this  poor  thing  hasn't  even  done  that.  I  should  think 
Mr.  de  Yoyna  would  tell  her,  or  give  her  some  advice  about 
it  —  stir  her  up  some  way.  Mediocrity  oughtn't  to  be 
encouraged." 

Whatever  Mr.  de  Voyna  thought,  however,  he  kept  to 
himself.  His  handsome,  regular  features  of  a  slightly 
Calmuck  cast  were  gravely  immobile  while  the  dancer 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  179 

twirled,  rose  and  sank,  mechanically  smiling,  before  him. 
"  Very  nice,  very  nice,"  he  said  at  the  end ;  and  the  three 
surrounded  him  again  with  murmured  conversation.  The 
class  filed  off  to  the  next  lesson,  equally  sparing  of  com 
ment;  either  they  were  uninterested,  or  were  bent  on  pre 
serving  the  metropolitan  pose  of  a  lack  of  interest,  or, 
like  Sandra  herself,  kept  their  opinions  private  out  of 
common  prudence  and  humanity.  It  may  be,  though,  that 
Miss  Boardman  was  not  so  successful  in  this  well-meant 
effort  as  she  believed;  she  could  not  emulate  de  Voyna's 
masterly  impassivity.  For  when,  later  on,  she  applied 
to  him  for  an  audience,  fortified  by  the  argument  that  if 
he  could  stand  any  one  so  thoroughly  unendowed  and  un 
inspired  as  the  other  girl,  he  could  certainly  stand  her, 
the  Russian  looked  her  over  sharply  with  a  little,  dis 
concerting  smile  of  comprehension  and  good-humoured 
malice. 

"  Ah,  ah,  we  can  dance  much  better,  oh  but  much  better 
than  the  mees  the  other  day,  hein?  "  said  he.  "  We  think 
that  she  was  all  that  there  is  of  the  most  banal,  is  it  not  ? 
Ouf,  that  smile !  It  is  to  make  on©  want  to  bite,  eh  ? " 
And  here  Mr.  de  Voyna  with  a  shrug,  trailed  off  into  a 
sibilant  French  phrase  or  two,  while  Sandra,  who  did 
not  understand  the  language,  stood  before  him  embarrassed 
but  confident.  He  checked  himself  abruptly.  "  So  you 
want  to  dance  for  me?  A  la  bonne  heure!  I  imagined 
to  myself  that  that  would  be  next,"  he  said,  eyeing  her. 
"  Where  have  you  danced  ?  " 

Sandra  felt  sure  that  he  had  not  asked  the  other  girl 
any  such  question.  She  told  him,  and  was  not  ill-pleased 
to  see  him  receive  the  information  with  a  face  of  polite 
disbelief,  though  he  did  not  press  the  inquiry. 

"  For  charity  ?  So  ?  As  you  choose,  mees.  What  do 
you  wish  to  dance  for  me  ? " 


180  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

"  There's  some  music  called  the  Oreadentanz  —  Dance 
of  the  Oreads,  that  is  — "  Sandra  began. 

"  Assez!  I  speak  nine  languages,  Mees  Ohio,  and  I 
know  all  the  dance  music  —  but  all  of  it ! "  said  Mr.  de 
Voyna.  "  You  want  to  dance  the  Oreadentanz  of  your 
compatriot,  Mr.  McDowell.  Very  good.  And  what  then  ? 
Can  you  do  anything  else  ?  " 

"  Anything  else  ?  "  repeated  Sandra  in  a  blaze  of  temper 
so  fierce  and  sudden  as  to  astonish  herself  —  in  retrospect. 
"  Anything  you  choose.  I  will  improvise  if  you  like.  I 
will  dance  to  music  I  never  heard  before.  I  can  do  any 
thing  !  "  She  stopped,  aghast,  yet  angry  still.  She  found 
de  Voyna  insufferable  with  his  Olympian  airs ;  he  did  not 
know  with  whom  he  had  to  deal;  she  was  no  simpering 
automaton ;  she  was  a  dancer ;  she  — 

"  Oh,  la,  la,  la,  now  it  is  you  who  will  bite !  "  observed 
the  ballet-master  so  amiably  that  instant  mortification  en 
gulfed  the  girl.  She  was  almost  frightened  to  hear  him 
echo  aloud  her  very  thought.  "  You  are  a  dancer,  eh  ?  It 
is  not  for  an  old  un-deux-trois-attention-mesdames  like  me 
to  command  you,  an  artist.  C'est  bien  ga!  I,  also — " 
Mr.  de  Voyna  broke  off  with  another  shrug,  a  smile,  a  sigh 
of  infinite  patience  and  melancholy  resignation  which 
Sandra  was  far  too  occupied  with  herself  to  understand, 
even  to  perceive.  "  Va  pour  I' Oreadentanz  alors!  And 
for  whatever  besides  suits  you  —  que  diable !  You  shall 
stay  and  dance  for  me  tomorrow  after  the  lesson.  On 
pourra  bien  se  passer  de  cette  sale  Syrinx,  Tiein?"  said 
de  Voyna,  expressing  himself  with  a  certain  liberty,  per 
haps  because  he  knew  it  to  be  quite  safe ! 

The  audience  would  not  have  been  highly  satisfactory 
to  most  candidates ;  and  whoever  awaits  the  news  that  this 
heroine,  after  stirring  de  Voyna  to  a  hurricane  en 
thusiasm,  sprang  at  once  into  prominence,  the  limelight, 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  181 

and  a  salary  of  staggering  magnitude  at  some  Broadway 
theatre  —  whoever  looks  for  statements  like  these,  I  say, 
had  better  close  the  book.  Something  of  the  kind  un 
doubtedly  did  arrive  in  the  course  of  time,  but  not  at  this 
point.  But  Sandra  herself  was  somehow  not  disappointed, 
though  de  Voyna,  so  far  from  commending  her  perform 
ance,  did  not  even  reward  it  with  his  "  \7ery  nice  "•  —  a 
formula  which,  for  that  matter,  the  girl  did  not  want 
to  hear.  The  ex-ballet-dancer  watched  her  for  an  hour; 
once  or  twice  he  uttered  a  "  Tiens! "  and  she  thought  he 
swore  in  Russian  under  his  breath  repeatedly  —  in  Rus 
sian  or  in  some  other  of  his  nine  languages.  At  the  last, 
he  stopped  her  roughly  in  the  middle  of  a  tarantelle  which 
she  thought  she  was  dancing  with  great  spirit,  pushed  her 
to  one  side,  shouted  at  the  pianist  to  go  on,  and  danced 
a  dozen  measures  himself,  mimicking  her  brutally.  "  A 
tarantelle  is  not  what  you  call  a  cake-walk,  Mees  Ohio. 
It  is  not  a  clog-dance.  You  dance  like  a  nigger!  Like 
this  —  and  this  —  Bah !  "  He  made  a  gesture  of  disgust 
complete  and  convincing.  "  Listen  to  me !  You  have 
been  bitten  by  the  spider  whose  bite  is  death  —  you  who 
are  young,  beautiful,  desired  —  you  who  love !  It  is  the 
end.  And  you  dance,  you  who  know  it  is  the  end !  You 
dance  with  agony  in  your  heart,  with  passion,  with  despair 
—  you  dance !  You  would  give  your  soul  to  weep,  to  pray, 
to  cry  one  last  word  of  love  and  farewell  —  and  you  must 
dance !  "  De  Voyna  wrung  his  hands,  he  clutched  hia 
temples,  he  moved  his  eyes  wildly.  "  Mon  Dieu,  feel  a 
little  of  all  that!  Dance  it,  dance  it!"  he  screeched. 

Miss  Lipmann  at  the  piano,  stared;  to  her  he  was  a 
middle-aged  and  hitherto  respectable  foreign  gentleman 
suddenly  gone  off  his  head,  stamping  and  raving.  But 
Sandra  whose  initial  feeling  had  been  furious  resentment, 
now  forgot  everything  in  the  illumination  he  let  in  upon 


182  THE  BOARDMAIST  FAMILY 

her.  "  Play ! "  she  cried  out,  in  her  turn  sharply. 
"  Begin,  why  don't  you  ?  Play !  " 

"  And  believe  me,  I  played !  "  avowed  the  pianist,  in 
recounting  the  experience  afterwards.  "  I  played  for  all 
I  was  worth.  I  didn't  want  those  two  nuts  to  get  any 
nuttier  if  my  playing  could  stop  it !  " 

"  Well,  how  did  it  come  out  ?  Did  she  do  it  to  suit  him 
the  second  time  ?  "  was  asked. 

"  I  don't  know.  I  guess  so,"  said  Miss  Lipmann  in 
differently.  "  They  neither  of  ?em  said  much.  She  has 
to  die  at  the  end,  you  know,  and  I  thought  she  did  that 
part  beautifully.  So  many  of  'em  can't  fall  down  well; 
she  went  down  light  as  a  feather;  you  couldn't  hear  a 
sound,  and  yet  it  was  just  as  if  she'd  been  struck  by 
lightning.  She  certainly  did  that  part  awfully  well.  He 
went  and  helped  her  up  —  that's  something  I  never  saw 
him  do  for  anybody  else — "  interpolated  Miss  Lipmann 
thoughtfully ;  "  and  then  they  just  kind  of  looked  at  each 
other  for  a  minute.  And  that  ended  it.  I  wasn't  just 
what  you'd  call  sorry.  It's  work  playing  for  people  to 
dance."  Thus  did  Miss  Lipmann  view  the  very  first 
rendition  of  a  dance  that  for  poetry  and  fire  became  one 
of  the  most  celebrated  in  Sandra's  repertory.  One  might 
suppose  the  little  Jewess  would  have  made  some  capital 
out  of  the  fact,  but  she  was  a  simple  soul  and  probably 
never  thought  of  such  a  thing,  lurid  as  the  episode  was, 
not  even  when  the  Sunday  supplements  began  to  be  busy 
with  Sandra's  features,  costumes,  poses,  and  biography. 
"Well,  what  do  you  know  about  that?  I've  played  for 
her  dozens  of  times!  When  she  was  going  to  Claude's, 
that  last  year  before  the  school  broke  up.  What  d'ye  know 
about  that  ? "  she  would  remark  unemotionally. 

But  this  was  not  until  some  while  later.  Sandra  went 
on  with  her  technical  exercises  in  the  attic  studio  and  the 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  183 

first-floor  salon  of  the  Claude  establishment,  and  every 
thing  was  as  before  except  in  the  solitary  respect  that  de 
Voyna  now  accorded  her  several  hours  a  week  privately. 
It  was  his  own  proposal,  and  Sandra  met  it  at  first  with  a 
bluntness  of  speech  that  showed  how  much  she  must  have 
already  fallen  away  from  original  standards. 

"  Mr.  de  Voyna,  I  haven't  the  money.  You're  ever  so 
kind,  but  I  can't  afford  it." 

"  That  is  my  affair,"  said  the  Eussian. 

That  was  the  only  arrangement  made,  and  Sandra's 
family  knew  nothing  about  it.  Why  should  she  tell  them, 
the  girl  argued.  They  would  not  understand.  They 
would  be  ridiculously  shocked,  to  begin  with,  at  the  notion 
of  her  going  to  him  without  any  chaperon!  And  they 
would  think  it  did  not  "  look  well "  for  him  to  be  giving 
her  lessons  for  nothing.  Not  to  "  look  well "  connoted 
with  them  a  number  of  things  about  which  they  were  for 
ever  coaching  and  warning  Sandra  in  language  carefully 
veiled,  but  none  the  less  emphatic.  Alas,  the  young 
woman  was  not  in  the  least  grateful,  nor  did  she  take  their 
words  to  heart;  she  would  laugh,  or  throw  the  letters 
with  all  their  affectionate  anxiety  into  the  waste-basket. 
She  was  sick  and  tired,  Sandra  said  to  herself,  of  this 
solemn  twaddle  about  untrustworthy  men,  and  the  dangers 
a  girl  ran;  the  novels  were  full  of  it,  the  women's  mag 
azines  fairly  dripped  with  it.  It  was  all  the  veriest  stuff. 
No  girl  who  behaved  herself,  and  kept  her  mind  on  her 
work  had  anything  to  fear.  Perhaps  there  was  some  solid 
foundation  for  these  theories ;  for  it  is  a  fact  that  Sandra 
went  undamaged  throughout  her  career  both  as  a  student 
and  artist.  She  never  encountered  any  of  those  wolves 
in  masculine  garb,  or  those  harpy-like  ladies  about  whom 
all  of  us  have  heard  so  authoritatively;  either  they 
avoided  her  instinctively,  or  with  her  steady  young  vision 


184  THE  BOARDMAIST  FAMILY 

fixed  on  the  heights,  with  "  her  mind  on  her  work,"  as  she 
said,  she  never  was  aware  of  them  and  their  tawdry  tempta 
tions. 

There  were,  indeed,  other  matters  which  Sandra  kept 
from  her  people.  Mrs.  Richard  had  no  inkling  of  the 
girl's  moments  of  loneliness  and  low  spirits  and  of  her 
impulses  to  go  home  to  the  easy,  aimless  life.  Sandra's 
letters  were  always  gay,  sanguine,  sensible;  she  made  a 
little  comedy  out  of  her  experiences  as  a  working-girl. 
.  .  .  "I  have  been  taking  taxis  right  and  left  whenever 
I  felt  tired,  or  it  was  raining,  and  have  been  going  to 
places  for  luncheon  where  I  would  have  to  pay  at  least 
sixty  cents  for  a  sandwich  and  bouillon  and  a  chocolate 
eclair.  Just  the  other  day  I  suddenly  thought :  '  Here, 
this  won't  do!  I'm  poor!  I  live  in  a  hall-bedroom.  I 
ought  to  work  up  some  local  colour.'  So  since  then  I've 
tried  a  whole  lot  of  cafeterias  and  places  like  Child's, 
and  it's  really  a  good  deal  of  fun,  and  perfectly  surpris 
ing  how  much  you  can  get  for  a  quarter.  .  .  Mrs.  Tower 
came  into  my  room  and  sat  for  an  hour,  and  told  me 
all  about  ever  so  many  love-affairs  she  had  had,  and 
what  a  time  Mr.  Tower  had  getting  her,  and  how  there 
was  another  girl  after  him.  Then  when  he  died  (she 
didn't  seem  to  feel  very  badly  over  it)  she  started  this 
boarding-house ;  and  she  told  me  what  a  perfectly  wonder 
ful  success  it  was,  on  account  of  her  system  of  never  being 
intimate  with  the  boarders,  or  telling  them  anything  about 
her  affairs!  She  'raised'  her  niece,  whose  father  and 
mother  are  both  dead  ...  I  think  Miss  Schultze,  by  the 
way,  is  really  a  very  nice  girl,  not  a  bit  like  the  aunt; 
but  I  haven't  had  much  to  do  with  her,  of  course.  .  .  ." 

"  Mercy,  I  hope  not!  "  ejaculates  Mrs.  Richard.  "  They 
must  be  dreadfully  ordinary  people  — >" 


THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY  185 

"  Harmless,  though,  and  rather  amusing,  it  seems  to 
me,"  says  Mrs.  Alexander  mildly. 

"  Well,  I  don't  know  about  their  being  so  harmless, 
Mother.  That  sort  of  person  is  very  liable  to  fasten  on  a 
girl  like  Sandra,  one  who  they  can  see  has  had  greater 
advantages  socially,  you  know  —  and  —  er  —  all  that. 
They  think  so  much  of  things  like  that.  They're  likely 
to  be  very  pushing  and  disagreeable,"  said  the  wise  Mrs. 
Kichard.  "Listen  to  this:  '"She" — that's  this 
Schultze  girl,  you  know — 'came  and  offered  to  hook 
me  up  the  other  night,  when  I  was  going  to  Mildred 
Staccy's  —  Mildred  Barnes',  that  is  —  and  I  was  glad  she 
did,  for  it  was  my  black-and-silver,  and  I  couldn't  have 
got  into  it  by  myself — '  So  now,  of  course,  she  will 
expect  Sandra  to  reciprocate  by  hooking  her,  and  then  she 
will  begin  calling  her  by  her  first  name,  and  all  that," 
said  Sandra's  mother.  "  That's  the  way  those  people 
always  do.  I'll  have  to  write  to  Sandra.  She's  never 
been  thrown  with  that  class  before,  and  I  can  see  she 
doesn't  quite  know  how  to  keep  them  at  a  distance. 
One  can  do  it  without  being  unkind  — " 

She  went  on  reading:  "  '  Last  Saturday  night  she  and 
Mr.  Beckley  wanted  me  to  go  with  them  and  another  man 

—  some  friend  who  is  in  the  same  office  as  Mr.  Beckley 

—  to  a  moving-picture  theatre,  and  then  to  supper  some 
where  afterwards ' — There,  1  told  you  liow  it  would  be! 
'but  I  declined' — Thank  goodness!     But  I  might  have 
known  Sandra  would  be  careful — '  as  nicely  as  I  could ' 
Of   course.     You  dont   want   to   hurt   their  feelings  — 
'  I  told  them  I  had  already  been  out  late  two  nights  this 
week,   and   that  was  my  limit.     It  was  the  truth,   too. 
You  must  be  in  perfect  physical  condition  if  you  want  to 
do  your  best,  and  that  means  denying  yourself  a  good  deal ' 


186  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

—  How  seriously  the  child  takes  it,  doesn't  she?  You'd 
think  she  had  to  make  her  living  —  ( I  danced  for  them 
the  other  night  at  Mildred's.  Nobody  could  play,  but  they 
had  a  Victorgraph.  Everybody  seemed  to  like  it,  at  least 
they  applauded.  .  .  . 

"  '  What  do  you  think  ?  I've  lately  had  two  offers.  I 
don't  mean  offers,  so  don't  get  excited.  One  of  the  men 
that  I  dance  with  a  good  deal  at  the  school  told  me  he 
knew  of  an  "  opening  "  at  an  "  exclusive  tea-room  "  (it 
was  the  Astorbilt,  which  is  really  nice,  you  know)  and 
if  I  would  "  go  in  with  him "  he  was  sure  we  would 
"make  a  hit."  He  meant  exhibition-dancing,  you  know. 
Now  please  don't  imagine  there  was  anything  sentimental 
about  this.  He  wasn't  thinking  of  a  thing  in  the  world 
but  business.  He  dances  beautifully  himself,  and  of 
course  he  knows  it,  but  he  isn't  at  all  silly  about  it.  He 
has  to  dance  beautifully ;  it's  his  bread  and  butter !  He 
said :  "  This  is  a  very  high-class  proposition,  Miss 
Boardman,  or  I  wouldn't  consider  it  a  minute  either  for 
you  or  myself.  You  wouldn't  be  brought  into  any  unpleas 
ant  association  whatever.  When  the  management  came  to 
me,  I  made  them  understand  distinctly  that  the  young 
lady  I  hoped  to  get  for  dancing-partner  was  not  to 
be  obliged  to  mingle  with  the  guests.  They  said  that  was 
just  exactly  what  they  were  anxious  to  get;  they  mean 
to  make  a  point  of  our  keeping  strictly  to  ourselves."  .  .  . 

" '  The  other  "  proposition,"  which  was  just  as  busi 
ness-like,  came  through  the  Syrinx.  Some  man,  the 
manager  of  some  big  hotel  down  in  Aiken  or  San  Antonio, 
or  maybe  it  was  at  Palm  Beach,  one  of  those  Southern 
winter  resorts  anyhow,  wanted  somebody  like  me  to  be  a 
kind  of  resident  professional  entertainer  for  the  people  — 
be  around  whenever  any  one  wanted  to  dance  or  play 
tennis  or  make  up  a  bridge-table,  and  things  like  that. 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  187 

Don't  you  remember,  Mother,  seeing  girls  like  that,  or 
sometimes  some  man,  at  those  places?  I  always  thought 
it  was  such  a  queer  thing  to  do;  but  it's  a  regular  job 
like  anything  else!  Mrs.  Palmer  never  cracked  a  smile 
when  she  told  me ;  she  didn't  see  anything  queer  about  it. 
She  said  that  the  school  ordinarily  did  not  undertake  to 
supply  people  for  positions,  but  that  this  was  an  excep 
tional  case.  They  wanted  somebody  who  would  "  fit  in 
with  the  tone  of  the  place  which  is  exceedingly  exclusive 
and  refined  "  so  she  at  once  thought  of  me !  Wasn't  that 
a  bouquet,  though?  You  get  all  your  expenses  coming 
and  going  and  while  you're  there.  "  Of  course  you  can 
put  all  the  clothes  you  want  in  the  laundry.  They  expect 
that,"  the  Syrinx  said.  "  But  I  don't  need  to  tell  a  girl 
like  you  anything  about  that  or  the  proper  style  of  dress. 
You  know.  .  .  ." 

"  '  Mr.  Thatcher  is  here.  He  crossed  on  the  'Altruria, 
and  says  it  was  terribly  rough  all  the  way.  Only  think, 
he's  just  been  in  St.  Petersburg,  and  now  he  has  to  go  to 
Buenos  Aires !...'' 

Sandra's  mother  sighed  gently  as  she  folded  up  the 
letter.  "  He  has  a  very  interesting  life,  going  everywhere 
and  seeing  everything.  Sandra  likes  travelling,  too,  and 
doing  rather  out-of-the-way  things  —  like  this  dancing- 
school  fad,  for  instance.  They're  unusually  congenial," 
she  remarked,  and  sighed  again. 

"  She  doesn't  say  anything  about  having  declined  those 
two  '  positions '  as  she  calls  them,"  said  the  older  Mrs. 
Boardman. 

"  Eh  ?  Why,  no.  I  suppose  she  thought  she  didn't 
need  to  tell  us  that.  Fancy  Sandra  doing  anything  of 
that  kind!" 


CHAPTER  III 

MAEY  SCHULTZE,  in  spite  of  a  metropolitan  bring 
ing  up,  her  office-girl  position  and  that  aggressive 
looking  nose  which  Sandra  has  remarked  upon,  was  a 
rather  shy  and  quiet  girl.  She  was  aware  that  in  sum 
total  her  slight  figure,  soft,  smooth,  straight,  light-coloured 
hair,  and  gentle  blue  eyes  lacked  effect;  aware,  too,  that 
this  lack  was  not  to  be  supplied  or  overcome.  Sick  or 
well,  young,  old,  dressed  like  a  princess  or  going  in  rags, 
she  still  would  have  been  a  very  cipher  for  unimpressive- 
ness  ;  neither  good  nor  ill  fortune  nor  any  sort  of  honours 
or  achievements  could  have  invested  her  with  the  indefin 
able  quality  which  she  called  "  personality."  It  is,  how 
ever,  no  uncommon  lot  to  feel  oneself  a  nonentity  in  !frTew 
York,  so  Mary,  being  a  sensible  enough  girl,  did  not  be 
moan  the  fact ;  it  only  stirred  in  her  a  fervent  admiration 
untainted  by  envy  or  jealousy  for  anybody  like  Alexandra 
Boardman.  This  slender  and  elegant  creature  with  her 
fine  unconscious  distinction  that  was  so  superior  to  physi 
cal  perfection,  that  had  nothing  to  do  with  dress  or  sur 
roundings,  set  up  a  new  standard  for  Miss  Schultze.  It 
remained  unshaken  even  by  the  graciously  administered 
rebuffs  which  her  first  timid  advances  met.  Somehow  or 
other,  Mary  found  it  natural  and  appropriate  that  so 
eminently  endowed  a  being  should  be  courteously  in 
accessible;  warmth  or  informality  of  manner  would  not 
have  become  her. 

"  It  isn't  that  she's  got  so  much  style''  she  declared  to 
Mr.  Beckley.     "  She's  awfully  aristocratic,  through  and 

through." 

188 


THE  BOABDMAtf  FAMILY  189 

"  Huh !     Studying  to  be  an  actress,  isn't  she  ?  " 

"  No.     It's  aesthetic  dancing." 

"  Well,  great  goodness.  I  don't  see  anything  so 
aristocratic  about  that!"  said  Gus. 

"  I  don't  think  she  has  to.  I  think  she's  just  doing  it 
to  be  doing  something.  It's  that  kind  of  extreme  thing 
society  girls  do,  you  know — " 

"  Yeah.  Like  one  of  these  millionaires  giving  a  dinner 
for  a  pet  bull-dog,  or  some  stunt  on  that  order,"  the  young 
man  acquiesced. 

"  Oh,  no,  that's  just  sort  of  crazy  and  silly.  This  is 
more  like  taking  a  course  in  kindergarten  or  library- 
work.  It's  kind  of  like  playing  that  they  have  to  work. 
It  isn't  much  like  the  real  thing,  but  they  don't  know  that," 
Mary  said,  not  without  a  certain  odd  condescension.  "  I 
expect  Miss  Boardman  can  stop  whenever  she  wants  to." 

"  She  couldn't  stop  too  soon  for  me !  "  said  Augustus 
rather  grimly.  "  Dancing !  I  don't  believe  her  folks  can 
be  such  a  much,  or  they  wouldn't  let  her  do  it.  Maybe 
it's  because  they  live  out  West  —  in  Ohio  or  wherever  it 
is  —  and  don't  know  anything.  If  they'd  ever  seen  what 
goes  on  at  these  cabaret  places — " 

"Oh,  my,  she  isn't  thinking  of  going  anywhere  like 
that !  "  Mary  protested,  shocked.  "  She's  going  to  be  one 
of  the  —  the  high-up  ones  — 

"  She  is,  is  she  ? "  said  Gus  with  sarcastic  significance. 
He  opined  that  she  was  due  to  learn  a  good  deal  before 
she  was  throiigh  with  it  —  if  she  stuck,  that  is.  And 
Mary's  blue  eyes,  clouding  a  little,  gave  tacit  assent. 
The  two  looked  not  unlike  as  they  sat  together  on  the  sofa 
in  the  boarding-house  parlour;  in  the  lines  already 
mapping  their  young  faces  one  might  read  a  similar 
experience  of  life,  not  exactly  hard,  only  changeless  and 
devoid  of  illusions.  Both  of  them  had  always  had  good 


190  THE  BOARDMAiNT  FAMILY 

enough  homes,  good  enough  health,  good  enough  luck  gen 
erally.  There  were  no  drunkards  or  wastrels  or  invalids 
on  either  side,  no  tragic  burdens.  Mary  could  not  re 
member  her  father  and  mother  and  got  on  comfortably 
with  Mrs.  Tower,  who  was  kind  to  the  girl;  she  did  not 
resent  the  necessity  for  work,  but  spent  or  saved  her  ten 
dollars  a  week  with  satisfaction,  and  did  a  little  em 
broidery  for  her  wedding-outfit,  and  good-naturedly  with 
stood  the  "joshing"  of  her  companion  office-girls,  and 
waited  patiently  for  Gus,  and  was  not  unhappy  or  out  of 
temper  over  the  flavourless  dish  fate  had  spread  for  her. 
Young  Beckley  had  to  support  his  mother;  he  got  seventy 
dollars  a  month  at  McChesney's,  with  no  prospect  of 
getting  any  more  soon,  if  ever.  But  he  did  not  look  upon 
these  circumstances  as  hardships;  everybody  has  to  start 
in  a  small  way;  he  was  doing  as  well  as  any  one  could 
reasonably  expect,  and  some  day  would  do  a  great  deal 
better.  There  are  thousands  upon  thousands  of  just  such 
couples  all  over  the  country  —  all  over  the  universe !  — 
and  like  Gus  and  Mary,  if  they  sometimes  glimpse  for  a 
moment  the  monotony  of  their  existence,  they  are  saved 
by  the  belief,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  never  to  be  realized, 
that  it  is  not  always  going  to  be  so. 

"I  wouldn't  take  twenty  of  that  Miss  Boardman  for 
one  of  you,  anyhow,"  said  Augustus  loyally.  "  There's 
nothing  to  those  society  girls."  He  reached  out  for  her 
hand  and  squeezed  it.  "  Say,  Mary,  when  we  get  mar 
ried  — " 

"  Oh,  Gus,  don't !  Somebody'll  see  you  — !  " 
About  this  time  Mr.  Thatcher  landed  from  the  AUruria; 
and  coming  around  to  see  Sandra  he  erelong  made  the 
acquaintance  of  the  other  young  people.  That  is  to  say, 
Samuel,  who  was  no  stickler  for  formalities,  beginning  by 
off-hand  conversation  with  young  Beckley,  was  presently 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  191 

with  scarcely  an  introduction  on  friendly  terms  with  Miss 
Schultze.  The  latter  swiftly  divined  the  situation  between 
him  and  Miss  Boardman  —  divined  it  with  compassion. 

"  I  shouldn't  wonder  if  he'd  been  after  her  for  ever  so 
long,"  she  communicated  to  Gus ;  "  and  of  course  she  won't 
have  him.  I  feel  so  sorry  for  him." 

"<Of  course'?"  echoed  Mr.  Beckley.  "Why  '  of 
course  '  ?  He's  —  why,  he's  a  prince !  He  must  make 
a  lot.  He  probably  gets  a  big  salary  and  commissions  on 
the  side.  He's  all  right.  What's  the  matter  with  her  ?  " 

"  Oh,  he  isn't  the  kind  that  would  ever  appeal  to  her, 
Gus.  He  might  just  as  well  give  it  up.  I  do  feel  so 
sorry  for  him.  If  you  were  a  girl,  you'd  understand." 

Miss  Thatcher,  having  been  a  girl,  no  doubt  did  under 
stand.  She  accepted  Sam's  presents  and  dutiful  fraternal 
attentions  good-humouredly,  went  about  with  him  as 
much  as  she  thought  advisable,  and  then  diplomatically 
withdrew  without  betraying  any  annoying  sisterly  jeal 
ousy,  without  feeling  any,  in  fact,  for  Kate  was  very 
nearly  as  cool-hearted  as  she  was  cool-headed  and  had  long 
been  used  to  "  paddling  her  own  canoe  "  as  she  herself  said 
sometimes  adding  with  a  laugh  that  she  never  allowed 
anybody  to  rock  it,  either.  Notwithstanding  her  pro 
fessed  detachment,  however,  she  did  give  Samuel  a  word 
of  warning  in  regard  to  one  project  be  broached. 

"  I  don't  think  I'd  do  that  if  I  were  in  your  place, 
Sam.  You  can't  go  mixing  Miss  Boardman  up  with  those 
people." 

"  Oh,  pshaw,  she  likes  them.  She  told  me  Miss 
Schultze  was  a  nice  girl.  She  doesn't  seem  to  know 
Beckley  very  well,  but  they've  been  right  here  in  the 
house  with  her  for  months  — 

"  Yes,  and  she's  never  had  anything  to  do  with  them !  " 
interrupted  her  sister.  Then  all  at  once  she  began  to 


192  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

laugh.  "  Oh,  well,  go  ahead !  You'll  have  to  find  out 
for  yourself." 

But  Sam,  as  it  happened,  did  not  find  out.  "  Let's  go 
to  the  Hippodrome  some  night  before  I  sail.  And  I'll  tell 
you  what  I'd  like  to  do.  I'd  like  to  take  Beckley  and  his 
girl,  your  little  stenographer  friend.  They  don't  have 
much  fun.  I  judge  he  doesn't  make  a  great  deal,  and  he 
can't  spend  any  of  it.  I'd  like  to  give  'em  a  good  time," 
he  said  to  Sandra,  never  doubting  her  response.  And  to 
be  sure,  Sandra,  after  one  blank  instant,  spoke  with 
sufficient  cordiality. 

"  Oh,  you  feel  as  if  you  ought  to  show  them  some  atten 
tion.  Why  yes,  of  course.  I  think  that  would  be  a  very 
nice  thing  to  do." 

So  they  went,  and  to  Sandra's  inward  surprise,  it  turned 
out  to  be  no  such  ordeal  after  all.  Mr.  Beckley  and  Miss 
Schultze  were  properly  dressed,  and  there  was  nothing 
"  common  "  about  their  conduct ;  Sam's  entertainment  was 
not  too  lavish;  everything  went  off  so  well  that  Miss 
Boardman  ended  by  having  a  very  good  time  herself! 
They  did  not  see  any  one  she  knew,  or  the  others  knew, 
whereat  Sandra  was  a  little  relieved,  though  she  said  to 
herself  recklessly  that  she  would  not  have  minded;  what 
difference  did  it  make  on  this  coast  of  Bohemia?  But 
afterwards  she  and  Mary  did  call  each  other  by  the  first 
name,  dreadful  to  relate;  and  Mr.  Beckley  was  notice 
ably  easier  in  his  manner;  and  they  even  made  some  sly 
references  to  Mr.  Thatcher's  aspirations!  The  expedi 
tion  and  its  results  had  to  be  added  to  the  increasing  list 
of  matters  that  she  omitted  to  mention  in  her  letters  home. 

Late  that  winter  the  Claude  School,  fulfilling  the 
prophecies  and  rumours  which  had  been  in  circulation 
all  season,  collapsed.  The  pupils  scattered;  Mrs.  Palmer 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  193 

went  to  another  establishment  farther  up  town  connected 
with  some  fashionable  dramatic  enterprise,  it  was  under 
stood  ;  de  Voyna  enlisted  a  compatriot,  "  late  of  the  Royal 
Ballet"  at  Vienna,  St.  Petersburg,  Stockholm  or  where 
you  choose,  and  started  a  school  of  his  own;  Miss  Lip- 
mann  "got  a  job"  playing  in  a  moving-picture  theatre; 
the  Claudes'  business  representative  was  to  be  seen  for 
some  days  before  the  close  busy  over  the  books  with  Miss 
Marx;  and  Sandra  now  discovered  that  that  hitherto 
negligible  individual,  the  shoe-brush-moustached  man  oc 
cupied  this  position !  No  wonder  he  had  been  "  around  " 
so  often,  she  reflected;  she  had  fallen  into  the  habit  of 
nodding  to  him,  moved  by  his  own  habit  of  eyeing  her 
waveringly,  with  halfway  gestures  towards  his  hat  in  a 
perennial  and  visibly  harassing  uncertainty  as  to  whether 
she  recognized  him  or  not.  Flesh  and  blood  could  not  en 
dure  the  spectacle;  it  was  like  attending  the  efforts  of  a 
stammerer  to  enunciate  clearly;  Sandra  bowed  in  self-de 
fence,  to  settle  her  own  nerves ;  and  on  every  occasion  the 
shoe-brush  moustache  finished  his  salutation  with  the  same 
air  of  relief,  the  girl  said,  as  if  he  had  just  escaped  from 
the  dentist's  chair.  But  she  did  not  know  his  name 
until  one  morning  as  she  ran  up  the  steps  past  Miss  Marx's 
desk,  the  book-keeper  stopped  her  with  a  gesture. 

"  Oh,  Miss  Boardman  —  why  —  just  a  minute, 
please !  "  she  said ;  and  as  Sandra  paused  and  turned  with 
a  foot  on  the  next  step,  Miss  Marx,  manoeuvering  into 
close  range,  gave  her  an  almost  imperceptible  grimace  of 
meaning.  "  Meet  Mr.  Levison  —  Mr.  Max  Levison." 

Mr.  Max  Levison  bowed,  muttering  incoherently  under 
his  moustache,  and  half-extending  his  hand  with  the  in 
decision  seemingly  characteristic  of  him.  Sandra,  as 
usual,  put  an  end  to  it  in  sheer  humanity,  by  holding  out 


194  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

her  own,  which  he  took  and  retained  for  an  instant  with  a 
fearful  care  as  if  it  had  been  of  the  texture  of  an  egg 
shell. 

"  Miss  Boardman's  one  of  our  stars,"  Alma  told  him. 

"  Oh,  I  know  that !  "  said  Mr.  Levison  with  a  nervous 
smile.  "  I  saw  her  when  she  first  came.  Let's  see,  that's 
been  three  or  four  months,  hasn't  it?  I  guess  she  knew 
something  about  dancing  before  she  came,  but  she  must 
have  liked  us  pretty  well,  or  she  wouldn't  have  stayed, 
hey  ?  "  Having  got  himself  started  in  this  rather  quaint 
fashion,  speaking  of  Sandra  instead  of  to  her,  he  was 
apparently  unable  to  abandon  it,  but  went  on  addressing 
the  tDok-keeper  with  a  kind  of  flurried  and  involuntary 
fluency.  "  It's  a  pity  we've  got  to  close  up  but  she  must 
have  noticed  how  the  attendance  has  been  falling  off  — 
it's  run  down  steadily  ever  since  she  came  —  Oh,  I  —  I 
mean  —  I  didn't  mean  —  " 

Sandra's  laugh  was  so  spontaneous  and  sincere  that 
Miss  Marx,  after  an  embarrassed  moment,  joined  her  un 
restrainedly.  Levison  looked  at  them  at  first  doubtfully, 
then  with  a  dawning  grin. 

"  Now  look  here,  don't  you  start  kidding  me  about  that 
break.  You  know  perfectly  well  what  I  meant  —  both  of 
you,"  said  he,  and  something  in  the  cast  of  his  speech,  or 
in  his  manner,  aroused  Sandra  to  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
younger  man  than  she  had  supposed  —  perhaps  under 
thirty-five.  There  was  only  a  streak  or  two  of  grey  in 
his  strong  black  hair.  "  Do  you  know  yet  what  you're 
going  to  do  ?  After  the  break-up,  you  know  ?  Made  any 
plans  ? "  he  asked  of  her  directly,  for  the  first  time. 

Sandra  told  him  she  was  going  home  for  a  rest. 

"Oh,  home!  Oh,  you're  going  to  go  home!"  echoed 
Mr.  Levison  blankly,  fingering  the  shoe-brush.  "  Where 
is  vour  home  ?  " 


THE  BOAEDMAX  FAMILY  195 

Sandra  told  him  that,  too,  glancing  at  the  clock,  and  be 
ginning  to  move  on  her  way. 

"  Oh,  yes,  I've  been  there.  But  —  why  —  er  —  lis 
ten  !  "  said  Levison  urgently.  "  You're  coming  back  ? 
You're  going  to  keep  on?  You're  not  going  to  give  it 
up?" 

"  I  want  to  keep  on,"  said  Sandra,  politely  chilly. 
"  So  sorry,  Mr.  Levison,  I  have  to  go  to  my  lesson 
now,"  and  she  sped  off  up  the  stairs,  feeling  his  gaze  fol 
low  her. 

Miss  Marx  made  an  opportunity  afterwards  to  explain 
that  she  could  not  avoid  the  introduction.  "  He  asked 
me  flat  out,  and  I  couldn't  help  it.  He'd  been  at  me 
before  to  do  it,  and  I  had  kind  of  put  him  off,  you  know, 
because  I  thought  maybe  you  wouldn't  be  crazy  about  it ; 
but  this  time  I  couldn't  help  myself.  Besides  I  feel  as 
if  I  ought  to  keep  in  with  him.  It's  business,"  she  said 
simply. 

"Oh,  I --I'm  sure  Mr.  Levison  is  very  nice,"  said 
Sandra  in  some  confusion.  She  could  think  of  no  answer 
that  would  have  been  entirely  proper  and  adequate,  as  she 
later  told  the  family,  describing  this  incident  with  laugh 
ter. 

"  Oh,  yes,  he's  got  plenty,  I  expect,"  said  Alma.  "  He's 
interested  with  the  Rosenbergs.  They're  pretty  solid  peo 
ple  to  be  in  with.  They've  got  a  name  on  Broadway,  and 
every  now  and  then  one  of  their  shows  makes  a  big  hit, 
but  I  don't  believe  that's  where  they  make  the  money. 
No,  sir,  that's  where  they  spend  it !  It's  funny,  a  Broad 
way  reputation  isn't  any  special  good  on  Broadway,  but 
you  can  play  it  to  the  limit  —  if  you  don't  mind  my  using 
that  sporty-sounding  expression  —  all  over  the  rest  of 
the  country.  It's  the  Rosenberg  Circuit  where  the  money 
comes  from,  since  all  the  stars  have  taken  to  vaudeville. 


196  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

They've  got  Olga  Nethersole  and  Mrs.  Campbell  and 
Eaversham —  oh,  I  don't  know  who  all!  I  expect  Mr. 
Levison  could  tell  you  all  about  it,  though ;  he's  on  the  in 
side.  He  told  me  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Claude  were  going  out 
next  season  —  on  the  Circuit,  you  know  — "  and  so  on,  and 
so  on. 

Sandra  went  home  at  the  Easter  holidays  according  to 
her  plans.  Everett  met  her  at  the  station,  looking  more 
debonair  than  ever;  seeing  the  young  fellow's  handsome, 
well-cut  head  and  fine  shoulders  above  the  crowd,  from  the 
top  of  her  Pullman  steps,  Sandra  felt  a  throb  of  pride  in 
him.  How  splendid  he  was!  How  common  everybody 
seemed  beside  him !  How  good  it  felt  to  be  back  among 
one's  own  people!  She  even  laughed  in  delighted  recog 
nition  of  the  fact  that  he  had  picked  up  a  porter,  though 
there  was  a  great  crowd  and  nobody  else  had  one ;  that  was 
Everett  all  over !  He  had  never  carried  a  bag  in  his  life ; 
everybody  was  always  ready  and  eager  to  wait  on  him. 
To  be  sure  he  tipped  the  servants  regally,  and  perhaps  they 
scented  that,  but  anyhow  they  always  admired  and  ap 
plauded  and  followed  him.  Everett  was  glad  to  see  her, 
too,  although  of  course  he  would  not  show  much  feeling 
before  such  an  audience;  the  brother  and  sister  greeted 
each  other  decorously,  though  they  chattered  like  magpies 
once  in  the  taxi  together.  So  much  seemed  to  have  hap 
pened  in  these  few  months.  Ted  So-and-So,  was  en 
gaged  to  some  Buffalo  girl  —  and  after  the  way  he 
had  rushed  Frances  So-and-So,  too!  Mrs.  Henry  D. 
Meigs  and  the  rest  of  the  Meigs  family  had  come 
back  from  Europe  and  opened  up  that  old  barracks 
of  a  place  on  the  North  Hill  —  it  looked  like  the  Arabian 
Nights  now.  "  They  said  "  that  Nellie  Maranda  —  Nellie 
Loring  —  was  going  to  get  a  divorce  from  that  Loring 
fellow ;  the  wonder  was  she  hadn't  done  it  before.  Didn't 


THE  BOARDMA1ST  FAMILY  197 

the  old  town  look  natural,  though  ?  It  did,  the  dear,  famil 
iar,  dirty  old  town! 

At  the  house,  there  were  the  family  waiting,  and  her 
room  all  prettily  done  over  with  a  new  wall-paper  that  had 
high-handled  baskets  of  flowers  tied  with  streamers  of  pink 
and  blue  ribbon  on  it;  her  favourite  soup,  her  favourite 
dessert  were  ready;  the  old  gilt-and-white  china  epergne 
that  was  all  that  was  left  of  Mrs.  Jacob  Boardman's  dinner- 
service,  and  that  always  stood  on  the  lacquered  table  Com 
modore  Chase  had  brought  from  the  Orient  in  one  of  his 
cruises  eighty  years  ago,  was  filled  with  cards  of  invita 
tion  for  Miss  Boardman.  There  was  to  be  a  Kermess  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Orphans'  Home  in  which  she  had  been 
asked  to  dance  as  a  matter  of  course.  Everett  was  in  it, 
too ;  all  the  young  people  were  in  it. 

"  You  won't  know  a  great  many  of  them.  They  come 
from  the  suburbs  and  all  over  everywhere  —  people  you 
never  saw  before,  and  probably  will  never  see  again,"  her 
mother  said.  "  It's  just  like  all  the  charity  entertain 
ments  in  that  way.  But  this  Miss  Somebody  that  they've 
gotten  to  come  here  and  manage  the  thing,  seems  to  be 
very  careful  and  judicious.  She  gets  the  girls  and  men 
that  know  one  another,  and  are  in  the  same  set,  together, 
and  that  prevents  any  unpleasantness.  You  don't  have  to 
go  outside  of  your  own  group." 

Sandra  did  not  answer,  and  Mrs.  Richard  talked  on,  not 
questioning  that  she  had  expressed  sentiments  so  natural 
and  reasonable  as  to  need  no  answer ;  in  fact,  Sandra  would 
have  found  them  so,  too,  once  upon  a  time ;  she  would  have 
entirely  concurred  with  the  judgment  that  pronounced 
Miss  Somebody  to  be  very  careful  and  judicious,  and  that 
it  avoided  unpleasantness  to  keep  to  your  own  group. 
That  was  less  than  six  months  before ;  why  was  it  that  now 
her  mother's  words  moved  the  girl  preposterously  with  a 


198  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

desire  to  laugh  or  cry,  she  scarcely  knew  which?  She 
looked  around  the  table,  at  her  father's  kind,  tired  face; 
at  Everett  sitting  opposite  inimitably  well-dressed,  and 
well-  mannered ;  at  her  dainty  grey-haired  mother ;  at  her 
grandmother's  harsh,  high  features  and  beautiful  hands; 
at  the  simple,  charming  room,  even  at  the  maid  in  the 
background,  who  was  a  little  awkward  and  flustered,  noth 
ing  like  the  finished  servant  Mrs.  Boardman's  maids  used 
to  be.  She  was  new,  and  they  kept  only  one,  nowadays,  it 
seemed.  This,  Sandra  said  to  herself,  was  her  group ;  she 
loved  them,  she  was  proud  of  them,  she  understood  them 
to  the  very  core,  she  was  happy  to  be  with  them  —  for 
two  weeks!  What  was  the  matter  with  her,  she  thought 
guiltily,  that  the  life  they  lived  should  suddenly  seem  so 
distasteful?  She  was  actually  thinking  of  her  shabby 
boarding-house,  of  de  Voyna,  of  the  turbulent,  indifferent 
city,  of  those  two  "  offers  "  she  had  temporized  about,  at 
tracted  and  repelled,  unable  definitely  to  accept  or  decline 

—  she  was  actually  thinking  of  these  things  with  restless 
ness  and  eagerness!     She  was  ashamed  of  the  feeling, 
terrified  lest  the  others  should  guess  at  it.     What  would 
they  think  of  her,  this  dear,  admiring,  devoted  family? 
What  would  her  mother  think  if  she  knew  how  much  like 
a  sweet  child  she  seemed,  with  a  pretty  playhouse,  and  a 
"group"  of  nice,  lovable  little  girl  friends,  with  play 
houses  !     Remorse  shook  her  to  the  soul ;  and  yet  —  and 
yet  two  weeks  would  be  all  she  could  endure  of  it. 

"  Sandra,  that's  your  sauce  remoulade  on  the  asparagus 

—  you  know  you're  so  fond  of  it  —  Sandra!    Dearie  — 
why,  you're  not  crying !  " 

"  I  c-can't  help  it  —  I'm  —  I'm  so  glad  to  be  here !  " 
Sandra  stammered,  gallantly  untruthful,  raging  at  her 
self.  She  choked  back  the  sob,  and  jumped  up,  seizing 
hold  of  her  mother.  "  I'm  going  to  wool  you  around !  " 


THE  UOAKDMAN  FAMILY  199 

The  mood  persisted  in  varying  degrees  all  through  her 
stay.  Everybody  was  kind,  interested,  more  or  less  inquis 
itive,  very  complimentary  about  her  dancing.  The  return 
of  Misss  Alexandra  Boardman,  the  parties  given  for  her, 
her  appearance  in  the  Kirmess  must  have  been  a  perfect 
boon  to  the  society  reporters.  Sandra  was  grateful,  or 
tried  to  be ;  after  the  lonesome  winter,  she  felt  she  should 
be  more  appreciative,  should  cling  to  every  minute  with  her 
family  and  friends.  Alas,  the  truth  was,  as  she  acknowl 
edged  inwardly  with  shame,  that  she  was  counting  the 
minutes  off  with  relief !  And  as  to  appreciation,  the  girl 
knew  that  she  would  rather  have  one  half-hour  with  de 
Voyna  storming,  sneering,  grudgingly  approving  by  turns, 
than  a  year  of  plaudits  from  these  good  and  polite  people. 
What  did  they  know  about  it,  she  thought  with  contempt ; 
even  if  they  had  been  competent  critics  they  would  still 
have  carefully  sugar-coated  their  words  to  her.  For  that 
matter,  she  did  not  need  them  to  tell  her  she  could  dance ! 
The  sober  fact  was,  that,  like  every  other  artistic  endeav- 
ourer  that  ever  lived,  she  did  need  and  feel  greatly  the 
stimulus  of  an  admiration  which  intrinsically  she  found 
valueless,  even  despised.  Nothing  could  really  satisfy  her 
except  the  pursuit  of  her  art  with  struggles,  conquests  and 
defeats  of  which  only  she  herself  could  ever  know. 

It  will  be  seen  that  Miss  Boardman,  in  this  brief  space, 
owing  to  nobody  knows  what  influences,  the  isolation  of 
New  York,  the  vindication  of  her  belief  in  her  own  tal 
ents,  the  contact  with  another  social  world,  or  what-not, 
had  undergone  some  disturbing  change,  spiritual  or  mental 
or  both.  She  was  no  longer  the  anxious,  visionary  young 
person  who  had  gone  off  upon  a  quixotic  impulse  to  save 
her  father  from  bankruptcy.  If  that  purpose  had  still 
been  uppermost  in  Sandra's  mind,  she  might  have  been  con 
firmed  in  it  by  certain  patent  small  facts,  as  that  the  house 


200  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

and  table  were  not  so  well  supplied  as  formerly,  the  ward 
robes  of  the  two  elder  ladies  not  so  liberal,  and  her  father's 
verging  on  shabbiness,  and  by  other  signs  of  curtailment  of 
expenses  everywhere  visible,  though  kept  in  the  back 
ground.  But  the  girl  scarcely  remarked  these  things  at 
all.  She  was  of  a  generous  disposition,  and  still  thought 
by  fits  and  starts  of  how  much  she  was  going  to  help  the 
family;  but  she  thought  much  oftener  and  with  incom 
parably  greater  intensity  of  what  an  artist  she  was  going 
to  be.  She  was  naively  surprised  at  the  disappointment 
and  trouble  that  gathered  in  the  others'  faces  when  she 
spoke  of  going  back  to  New  York. 

"  We  —  we  thought  you'd  stay  at  home  for  a  while 
now,"  her  mother  said  at  last.  "  You  seemed  so  glad  to 
get  home.  We  had  that  room  papered  —  I  wanted  every 
thing  to  look  pretty  and  attractive  to  you  —  "  Her  voice 
shook  a  little ;  having  that  room  papered  had  entailed  some 
scrimping  and  pinching  and  "  going  without." 

"  It  is  pretty  and  attractive,  Moms  —  it's  just  as  sweet 
as  it  can  be.  I  love  it !  "  Sandra  cried  out.  "  Only  I 
can't  stay  anyhow.  I  —  I  have  to  work  —  I  have  to  go 
back,  don't  you  see  ? "  She  wondered,  with  a  kind  of 
vexed  pity,  why  it  should  be  so  hard  to  make  them  under 
stand  what  was  so  plain  to  herself ;  and  went  on  trying  to 
explain  with  an  insistence  that  was  growing  somewhat  hys 
terical  when  Mr.  Boardman  cut  her  short  abruptly. 

"Very  well,  Sandra,  you  can  go  back  if  you  want  to 
so  much.  Don't  let's  have  any  more  talk  about  it !  "  he 
said.  And  there  fell  that  awed  silence  which  occasionally 
follows  a  paternal  decision  not  too  pleasantly  announced. 

"  Dad,  I  —  "  Sandra  began  and  halted.  She  had  been 
about  to  say  that  she  knew  it  was  costing  him  a  good  deal 
and  that  she  would  pay  him  back  as  soon  as  she  was  able, 
but  the  words  stuck  in  her  throat.  Even  if  he  was  not 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  201 

affronted  by  the  suggestion,  he  would  not  believe  that  she 
could  carry  it  out.  He  did  not  believe  in  her;  none  of 
them  believed  in  her.  Mrs.  Alexander  may  have  been  an 
exception,  but  she  sat  silent,  looking  at  her  granddaughter 
speculatively.  No  revelation  of  youthful  selfishness  or 
ambition,  justifiable  or  not,  could  move  Mrs.  Alexander 
much,  to  outward  seeming,  at  least. 

"  You  found  the  banking  association  cheques  convenient, 
didn't  you  ?  "  Sandra's  father  asked  presently.  "  I'll  get 
you  some  more  —  " 

"  It  —  it  won't  take  —  I  don't  want  very  much  — " 
Sandra  faltered  unhappily. 

"  Everett  can  see  about  your  ticket  tomorrow,"  Kichard 
went  on  in  a  manner  that  closed  her  mouth  again.  "  Just 
now  I'm  rather  busy,  but  Everett  always  has  plenty  of 
time."  If  there  was  a  trace  of  bitterness  in  the  last  words, 
Sandra  was  too  absorbed  in  her  own  affairs  to  distinguish 
it.  She  had  not  observed  whether  her  brother  was  busy 
or  not ;  he  still  had  his  position  with  Mr.  Arnold. 


CHAPTEB  IV 

AMONG  the  first  acquaintances  Sandra  encountered  on 
her  return  to  New  York  was,  oddly  enough,  the  most 
recent  one,  Mr.  Max  Levison,  whom  she  met  on  Fifth 
Avenue  just  outside  a  famous  hotel.  Strictly  speaking, 
they  did  not  meet,  for  Mr.  Levison  overtook  her,  a  few 
steps  past  the  impressive  wrought-iron-and-glass  entrance, 
breathing  a  little  hurriedly  as  if  he  might  have  made  some 
haste  about  it. 

"  Say,  is  this  the  way  you  treat  your  friends  —  people 
you  know,  I  mean  ?  Go  right  by  'em  without  taking  any 
notice  ? "  he  said  with  a  species  of  forced  and  hollow  joc 
ularity;  Sandra,  turning  at  the  voice  in  her  ear  with  a 
start,  perceived  even  in  her  surprise,  that  for  all  the  free 
dom  of  this  address,  Mr.  Levison  was  in  reality  quaking 
in  one  of  his  seizures  of  diffidence. 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Levison !  Why,  I  didn't  see  you !  I  didn't 
know  I  had  gone  right  by  you !  "  she  assured  him  with  the 
unnecessary  warmth  to  which  this  exhibition  always  moved 
her ;  and  gave  him  her  hand,  which  he  hesitated  over  and  at 
last  took  gingerly,  as  before. 

"  I  was  right  there  in  the  window.  I  don't  see  how  you 
missed  me,"  said  he;  and  without  further  question  fell 
into  step  by  her  side.  Sandra  had  time  to  reflect  on  the 
refreshing  lack  of  sophistication  which  assumed  first  that 
she  would  walk  along  staring  into  hotel  windows,  or  even  so 
much  as  glancing  in  that  direction,  and  secondly  that  his 
company  would  be  so  welcome,  when  he  spoke  again. 
"  You've  got  back,  I  see." 

"  Yes,  I'm  back,"  said  Sandra,  quelling  a  desire  to  retort 

202 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  203 

oh,  no,  she  was  not  back,  she  was  in  Timbuctoo !  Setting 
apart  her  instinctive  knowledge  that  that  sort  of  lightness 
would  not  do  at  all  with  Levison,  she  was  somehow  aware 
that  he  was  not  dull,  he  was  merely  more  or  less  crippled 
by  bashf ulness  —  and  that  was  strange  too,  she  thought, 
for  it  was  only  too  apparent  that  he  came  of  a  race  whose 
distinguishing  trait  is  not  bashfulness  —  rather  the  re 
verse. 

"  Well,  I  guess  you  showed  'em  something  about  dancing 
back  in  the  old  home  town,  Podunk-on-the-Miami,  hey  ?  " 
was  his  next  remark,  made  with  the  same  desperate  false 
ease,  of  which  he  seemed  immediately  to  repent.  "  Oh, 
say,  I'm  not  making  fun  of  it,  you  know,  I  —  I  was  just 
talking.  It's  a  nice  place.  I  know  some  people  there 
named  Hirsch  —  Dr.  David  Hirsch  —  he's  a  dentist." 

Sandra  said  obligingly  that  she  had  heard  of  Dr.  Hirsch, 
who  indeed  was  an  eminent  person  in  his  professional 
sphere.  Mr.  Levison  then  remarked  that  these  specialists 
generally  made  a  good  deal  —  they  could  charge  almost 
anything  they  wanted  to;  and  for  his  part,  he  thought  it 
was  all  right ;  they  did  a  lot  in  charity,  too,  and  if  they  got 
even  by  soaking  him,  or  some  other  fellow  that  they  thought 
had  the  —  the  goods,  you  know,  why,  you  couldn't  alto 
gether  blame  them.  He  never  kicked  about  a  doctor's  bill ; 
he  just  came  across  with  the  amount,  and  hoped  he 
wouldn't  have  another  —  he  never  had  had  very  many,  in 
fact,  he'd  always  had  first-class  health ;  but  doctors  earned 
their  money  in  the  long  run.  'Lo,  Charlie!  How's 
everything  ?  All  to  the  mustard,  hey  ? 

The  last  part  of  this  speech  was  delivered  —  not  without 
relief,  as  if  he  were  snatching  at  a  chance  to  interrupt  his 
own  unwilling  but  apparently  uncontrollable  flow  of  words 
—  at  a  short,  stout  gentleman,  very  much  dressed,  with 
whom  they  almost  collided  in  the  crowd.  He  did  not  at 


204  THE  BOAEDMAIST  FAMILY 

first  see  Miss  Boardman,  then  copied  Levison's  gesture, 
taking  off  his  hat  with  a  rapid  inventorying  glance.  The 
Avenue  swallowed  him  up,  leaving  her  with  an  impression 
of  dazzlingly  polished  boots,  and  the  latest  thing  in  haber 
dashery. 

"  That's  Charlie  Rosenberg,"  said  Levison,  as  they  went 
on.  And  he  suddenly  asked  "  What  are  you  doing  now, 
Miss  Boardman  ? " 

"  What  am  I  doing  now  ? "  repeated  Sandra,  taken  by 
surprise. 

"  Yes.  Have  you  got  into  anything  ?  You  finally 
turned  Suydam  down,  I  understand.  There  might  have 
been  something  in  that  —  a  person  never  can  tell.  But  of 
course  you  know  what  you  want  to  do." 

Sandra  stared  at  him,  dumbfounded.  Suydam  was  the 
young  man  of  the  Astorbilt  tea-room  enterprise.  "  How 
•. —  how  did  you  know  ?  "  she  stammered  at  length. 

"  Oh,  I  know  him ;  I  know  lots  of  'em.  You  know  who 
J  am,  don't  you  ?  Well,  then !  "  Levison  said,  with  an 
expressive  shrug.  "  I  keep  a  line  on  a  whole  lot  of  peo 
ple.  That's  what  I'm  for  —  partly."  The  unnatural 
manner  dropped  from  him  as  he  spoke ;  it  was  plain  that 
Mr.  Levison's  foot  was  on  his  native  heath  now.  "  As  I 
was  saying,  that  Astorbilt  business  —  you  may  have  made 
a  mistake  there.  There's  more  future  to  it  than  you  think. 
That's  how  the  Claudes  got  their  start,  and  Miss  So-and- 
So  —  "  he  named  her  —  "  and  this  young  Whoosis,  her 
dancing-partner.  She  began  on  the  stage,  and  never  got 
a  look-in  —  absolutely  never  was  nearer  the  spot-light  than 
number  six  counting  from  the  end,  third  row  back,  the 
one  with  the  red  tassel  on  her  spear.  Well,  then,  somehow 
or  other,  she  got  hold  of  this  young  fellow  and  I  don't 
know  which  one  of  'em  had  the  idea,  or  what  kind  of  a 
steer  they  had,  but  the  dancing-craze  came  on,  and  the 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  205 

first  thing  you  know  they're  It!  Of  course  she  has  to 
keep  everlastingly  at  it  —  something  new  every  other  min 
ute,  and  costumes  from  Lucile,  and  her  picture  in  four 
teen  different  poses  in  the  ladies'  magazines  every  issue 
—  she's  got  a  pretty  busy  little  press-agent,  that  girl  has ; 
that  counts  some,"  Mr.  Levison  wound  up.  "  But  you  see 
how  it  is.  There's  something  in  it." 

"  Well,  I  —  I  wasn't  thinking  —  "  Sandra  began  con 
fusedly.  The  man  meant  well,  she  thought;  how  could 
he  understand  her  attitude  towards  her  art,  he  whose  sole 
measure  was  dollars  and  cents?  And  after  all,  the  com 
mercial  side  was  not  to  be  ignored  —  that  was  the  troubling 
thing !  If  you  want  to  know  whether  what  you  do  is  worth 
anything,  try  to  sell  it ! 

"  You've  got  something  else  in  view  ?  "  Levison  inquired. 

"  Why,  Mr.  de  Voyna  —  " 

Levison  made  a  sound  that  was  almost  a  snarl.  "  De 
Voyna!  Why,  Miss  Boardman,  you  can't  put  any  reli 
ance  on  people  like  him.  Now  he's  started  this  school, 
he'll  have  troubles  of  his  own,  anyway.  He  won't  have 
the  time  to  do  anything  for  you,  and  I  doubt  if  he  ever 
could  do  much.  He  wouldn't  know  how  to  push  you,  and 
you've  got  to  be  pushed.  Oh,  I'm  not  saying  you  haven't 
got  the  talent  and  all  that  —  "  he  interrupted  himself  with 
sudden  anxious  vehemence  —  "  You've  got  talent  to  burn. 
As  far  as  talent  goes,  you're  right  at  the  top.  But  nobody 
can  get  anywhere  on  talent.  You've  got  to  bang  the  big 
bell  for  all  you're  worth,  or  nobody'll  even  know  you're 
around !  " 

He  was  so  disinterested,  so  much  in  earnest,  so  desirous 
of  giving  her  what  he  considered  much-needed  advice  that 
Sandra  found  herself  replying  to  him  more  openly  and 
argumentatively  than  she  would  have  believed  possible  a 
while  before.  "  But  suppose  I  don't  care  about  that  kind 


206  THE  BOABDHAN  FAMILY 

of  success,  Mr.  Levison  ?  Where  you  go  after  people  and 
drum  them  up,  and  get  yourself  talked  about,  and  —  and 
bang  the  big  bell  all  the  time.  That's  just  cheap  popular 
ity,  or  notoriety ;  that  isn't  —  "  And  here  Miss  Board- 
man  coloured  and  hesitated  but  finally  brought  the  word 
out  —  "  that  isn't  fame." 

He  did  not  laugh;  indeed,  it  was  obvious  that  laughter 
was  the  farthest  thing  in  the  world  from  his  mind,  and  the 
genuine  gravity  of  his  answer  and  manner  was  an  uncon 
scious  compliment.  "  Fame  ?  Yes,  I  used  to  have  that 
bug,  too.  I  know  how  you  feel  about  it.  But  say,  listen ! 
What's  the  difference?  Between  fame  and  notoriety,  I 
mean?  Hey,  what's  the  difference?  One  sounds  a  little 
better  than  the  other,  that's  all.  And  popularity  isn't 
ever  cheap ;  you've  got  to  go  after  it,  and  work  and  slave 
and  lay  awake  nights  planning  for  it.  You  can't  get  any 
thing  easy.  I  know  all  that  stuff  about  Art  for  Art's 
sake  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  but  say,  listen !  It  doesn't  hurt 
your  Art  to  make  it  pay.  You  can  dance  just  as  well  if 
you're  getting  five  hundred  or  a  thousand  a  week  for  it, 
as  if  you  were  dancing  for  Art,  and  nothing  on  the  side. 
I've  known  lots  of  the  big  ones  —  actors,  singers,  all  of 
'em  —  and  they're  keen  after  the  dollars.  They've  got  to 
be!  There  isn't  anything  low  about  it.  Say,  listen! 
There's  only  one  kind  of  success.  That's  success!  1  was 
pretty  sure  you  had  some  of  these  high-brow  ideas,  but 
—  My  God! "  Levison  ejaculated  with  an  explosive  Israel- 
itish  gesture ;  "  My  God,  you've  got  to  get  over  ?em,  art 
or  no  art !  " 

"Maybe  I  will,  Mr.  Levison,  I'll  — I'll  try!"  said 
Sandra  hastily,  in  terror  of  the  notice  her  companion  might 
attract.  "  You  —  you're  ever  so  kind  to  tell  me  —  " 
She  stopped,  turning  suggestively.  "  This  is  my  corner. 
Good  —  " 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  207 

"  Hey  ?  Oh,  you  live  down  that  way  2  "  said  Levison, 
nodding  towards  the  row  of  brown-stone  fronts.  "  Which 
house  is  it  ?  " 

She  told  him  perforce,  though  after  a  blank  moment 
which  should  have  been  a  sufficient  hint,  she  thought.  It 
did  not  penetrate  Levison,  however. 

"Number  Nineteen?  I've  been  wondering  where  you 
lived,"  he  remarked,  keeping  pace  with  her  as  before! 
And  he  went  on  talking  energetically  in  the  same  strain 
to  the  flight  of  steps,  and  up  them  to  the  very  door,  where 
he  shook  hands  with  her,  and  took  his  leave  with  the  an 
nouncement  that  he  was  going  to  come  around  some  night, 
and  "  talk  this  thing  over  with  her."  There  was  no  want 
of  "  push  "  about  him,  at  any  rate,  once  he  was  set  in  mo 
tion,  Sandra  reflected  with  a  laugh. 

All  the  same,  she  admitted  reluctantly  that  there  was 
truth  in  what  he  said.  It  was,  of  course  a  poor  pot-boiling 
morality  to  preach ;  but  no  real  art  could  be  the  worse  for 
being  advertised  with  trumpets  and  banners  and  sold  at 
an  inflated  figure;  there  was  no  reason  why  it  should  be 
affected  at  all.  If  Mr.  Levison  should  carry  out  his  inten 
tion  and  "  come  around  "  with  some  sort  of  business  pro 
posal  —  and  Sandra  suspected  with  a  slight  flutter  that 
that  was  what  he  had  in  mind  —  she  would  at  least  listen 
to  him.  That  involved  no  descent  from  high  ideals. 

However  he  did  not  "  come  around  " ;  it  was  some  time 
before  Sandra  saw  him  again.  She  read  among  the  bul 
letins  of  theatrical  folk  that  he  had  gone  to  Europe  witk 
a  pocketful  of  contracts  on  the  trail  of  various  celebrities. 
It  began  to  be  very  hot,  and  the  native  population  fled  to 
be  replaced  by  Western  and  Mid-Western  visitors  sight 
seeing  or  pausing  to  shop  on  their  way  to  the  coast  resorts. 
Sandra  now  regarded  them  with  metropolitan  callousness 
although  not  infrequently  there  were  people  she  knew 


208  THE  BOAKDMAIST  FAMILY 

among  them  —  people  from  home.  More  than  once,  in 
deed,  she  deliberately  evaded  them,  turning  off  at  a  corner, 
or  dashing  across  the  Avenue  in  a  crowd  of  traffic  where 
she  calculated  these  provincials  would  not  venture.  She 
felt  a  morose  disinclination  to  meeting  them,  to  answering 
their  questions,  to  accepting  or  offering  perfunctory  civil 
ities.  The  root  of  the  trouble  was  that  our  young  friend 
Miss  Boardman,  not  having  yet  abandoned  the  idea  —  if 
indeed  any  one  of  us  ever  wholly  abandons  it  —  that  she 
was  a  person  of  as  much  importance  to  the  world  as  to 
herself,  now  suffered  from  the  sub-conscious  feeling  that 
everybody  by  this  time  must  be  expecting  her  to  do  some 
thing,  was  looking  for  her  head  to  appear  above  the  nick, 
that  there  was  a  general  demand  for  her  to  justify  herself, 
to  "  make  good,"  in  short,  as  Mr.  Levison  would  undoubt 
edly  have  said ;  and  she  was  not  doing  anything,  nor  was 
there  any  immediate  prospect  of  her  doing  anything !  She 
went  back  to  her  hall-bedroom  every  night,  and  waked  up 
therein  every  morning,  surveying  it  with  incredible  de 
spondency;  never  since  it  was  built,  had  that  bare,  con 
tracted,  not  too  well-kept  place  been  the  object  of  so  cling 
ing  an  affection.  Sandra  contemplated  with  harassing 
anxiety  the  change  not  to  a  barer,  dirtier,  cheaper  room 
and  boarding-house,  but  to  her  own  room  in  her  own  home ! 
Yes,  it  was  those  baskets  of  ribbons  and  roses,  it  was  the 
dainty  apartment  her  poor  mother  had  been  at  such  pains 
to  prettify  for  her  that  the  girl  did  not  want  to  see.  But 
that  calamity  loomed  imminent.  She  could  not  continue 
in  New  York  without  presently  asking  her  father  for  more 
money,  and  she  could  not  bend  her  pride  to  that.  In  con 
science,  she  had  had  enough  already.  She  began  a  fever 
ish  practice  of  economies,  mending  un-mend-able  gloves, 
darning  stockings  that  ought  to  have  been  in  the  rag-bag; 
she  covered  reams  of  note-paper  (with  the  Boardman  crest 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  209 

of  a  phoenix  and  their  motto  '  Eesurgam '  on  it)  with 
schedules  of  expenses  to  which  no  mortal  given  the  same 
means  could  have  managed  to  adhere.  It  was  a  melan 
choly  time,  and  not  less  so  because  Sandra  realized  that 
to  many,  many  people  she  would  have  been  merely  silly; 
the  sum  that  seemed  to  her  so  insufficient  would  have  been 
affluence  to  them.  She  was  not  starving,  she  was  not  in 
want;  she  could  go  and  be  safe  and  taken  care  of,  any 
moment  that  she  chose.  Her  tragedy  was  ridiculous,  and 
Sandra  knew  it. 

About  this  time,  Mary  Schultze  came  to  her  one  day 
with  the  timid  request  that  she  would  show  Gus  some 
dance-steps.  Mr.  Beckley  had  never  taken  the  time  for 
this  particular  accomplishment,  and  now  —  "  He  feels 
awfully  out  of  it,  whenever  we  go  to  a  cafe,  or  almost  any 
where.  Nobody  does  anything  but  dance,  and  he  says 
he  feels  like  a  perfect  rube,  but  he'd  look  like  a  worse  one 
getting  up  and  not  trying  without  knowing  how.  Besides, 
you  know  you  get  asked  to  places  a  lot  oftener,  and  it 
makes  you  ever  so  much  more  popular,  if  you're  a  good 
dancer.  If  you  just  would?  "  said  Mary  wistfully.  "  I 
don't  think  he'll  be  hard;  I  think  he'll  pick  it  up  pretty 
quick.  He  used  to  play  the  banjo  a  little.  I  can  dance 
myself  —  nothing  grand,  of  course,  but  I  can  do  all  right 
if  I'm  with  some  man  that  knows  how  to  lead.  But  I 
couldn't  teach  anybody  to  save  my  life.  Anyhow,  I 
wouldn't  want  to  begin  on  Gus  somehow.  He  wouldn't 
take  anything  from  me,  but  you  would  be  different.  If 
you  just  would?  " 

Sandra  acquiesced ;  she  could  not  find  it  in  her  heart  to 
refuse,  and  was  too  humane  or  perhaps  simply  too  man 
nerly  to  betray  the  ironic  mirth  to  which  this,  the  single 
outcome  of  all  her  work  and  dreams  and  trials,  moved  her. 
The  other  might  think  that  she  was  laughing  at  the  idea  of 


210  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

teaching  Gus  Beckley,  whereas  in  truth  Sandra  was  laugh 
ing  quite  as  much  at  herself.  "  It  may  do  me  good  to 
practise  teaching  anyhow,"  the  girl  told  herself  with  what 
philosophy  she  could  muster.  The  grapes  were  so  very, 
very  sour  that  she  deserves  some  credit  for  swallowing  them 
gallantly. 

Thereafter,  one  night  or  another  through  the  week,  the 
three  young  people,  occasionally  augmented  hy  a  fourth, 
some  bookkeeping  or  typewriting  friend  of  Gus's  or  Mary's, 
rolled  up  and  shoved  aside  the  "  Art  Square  "  which  cov 
ered  the  middle  of  the  parlour  floor,  moved  hack  the  plush 
chairs,  set  the  Victorgraph  going,  and  fell  to  work,  with 
alternate  fits  of  laughter  and  seriousness.  They  were 
under  bond  to  Mrs.  Tower  who  feared  for  her  other  board 
ers,  not  to  keep  it  up  more  than  an  hour;  indeed,  had  it 
not  been  for  the  fact  that  the  house  emptied  as  summer 
advanced  save  for  a  stray  "  transient  "  now  and  then  whose 
evenings  were  always  spent  elsewhere  among  the  sights, 
she  warned  them  they  would  have  had  to  forego  these 
studies.  "  It  doesn't  make  much  difference  right  now, 
but  you  young  folks  will  have  to  do  your  dancing  at  the 
regular  dance-places,  the  minute  my  season  opens,"  she 
proclaimed  roundly.  "  You  can't  raise  that  rag-time 
racket  under  people's  heads  that  want  to  go  to  sleep,  I 
don't  care  how  much  of  a  craze  it  is." 

"  You  should  worry  about  next  season !  "  Gus  observed 
sardonically.  "  By  that  time,  just  as  I've  got  so  I  can 
steer  a  girl  around  the  room  without  walking  all  over  her, 
or  up  some  other  fellow's  back,  why,  dancing  will  go  out 
entirely,  and  they'll  be  doing  something  else  —  aeroplan- 
ing,  likely !  " 

Mr.  Beckley,  nevertheless,  was  not  so  dull  a  pupil  as 
might  be  inferred  from  his  gloomy  self-depreciation.  He 
had  a  sufficiently  good  ear  and  sense  of  rhythm;  and  sue- 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  211 

ceeded  amazingly  as  long  as  he  had  Sandra  for  a  partner. 
"  Anybody  could  dance  with  her,  though.  You  don't  feel 
as  if  you  were  holding  anything  at  all.  She  goes  right 
around  with  you  no  matter  what  kind  of  weird  steps  you 
take.  She's  a  wonder !  "  he  said  to  Mary,  lost  in  enthu 
siasm. 

"  Of  course !  She's  almost  a  professional.  And  then 
you're  learning  yourself,  Gus.  You  can  dance  as  well  as 
anybody,"  said  Mary  loyally  and  without  jealousy. 

"  Sure  I  can !  I've  got  all  those  Russian  stars  beat 
a  mile !  "  Mr.  Beckley  declared  in  fine  irony.  "  Hon 
estly  I'd  hate  to  get  up  at  a  iay-donsong ,  for  fear  of  mak 
ing  all  the  other  men  feel  bad !  " 

"We  ought  to  go  to  the  Astorbilt  or  some  place  some 
time.  You  and  Miss  Boardman  could  dance." 

"  She'd  just  love  it,  of  course !  "  said  Gus  in  the  same 
vein ;  then  he  scowled  thoughtfully  at  his  cigarette.  "  All 
the  same  seems  as  if  we  ought  to  do  something  for  her 
before  long,  Mary.  It  makes  me  uncomfortable  not  to 
pay  her,  because  you  bet  it's  work  teaching  me  to  dance !  " 
he  avowed  with  conviction.  "  We  made  a  big  mistake  in 
the  beginning  not  putting  this  thing  on  a  business  basis. 
Trouble  was,  it  seemed  so  awkward  with  a  girl  like  her. 
I  didn't  know  how  to  go  at  it,  scarcely.  I  thought  I'd 
put  it  off  till  I  got  to  know  her  better ;  but  after  a  couple 
of  months,  it's  awkwarder  than  ever." 

"  Well,  you've  always  brought  a  box  of  candy,  and  tried 
to  do  everything  you  could  for  her,"  Mary  pointed  out. 
"  It  isn't  as  if  you  had  gone  ahead  without  showing  any 
appreciation.  I  really  don't  believe  she's  ever  thought 
of  your  paying  her.  I  don't  know  what  you  could  do, 
unless  entertain  her  somewhere,  like  I  was  saying." 

"  Well,  I  couldn't  take  her  to  the  Astorbilt,  that's  one 
certain  thing.  I  couldn't  reach"  said  the  young  fellow, 


212  THE  BOAKDMAtf  FAMILY 

illustrating  his  metaphor  with  a  gesture.  "  Those  places 
just  tipping  the  hat-boy  busts  you.  But  there's  other 
kinds  of  funny  little  joints  that  strangers  like  to  go  to,"  he 
added  meditatively.  "  Say,  Mary,  that's  an  idea." 


CHAPTER  V 

SANDRA  revised  her  first  impulse  to  decline  the 
Schultze-Beckley  invitation  upon  the  recollection 
that  she  had  declined  rather  too  many  such  invitations 
already.  Mrs.  Richard  herself  would  have  advised  ac 
ceptance,  arguing  that  another  of  these  systematic  refusals 
might  reasonably  give  offence ;  and  to  hurt  the  feelings  of 
harmless,  well-meaning,  second-class  people  was  the  lowest 
crime  in  a  gentlewoman's  calendar.  So  Miss  Boardman 
agreed  to  go  with  the  carefully  acted  spontaneity  her 
mother  also  enjoined  in  such  circumstances.  Make  a 
round  of  the  little  cafes  some  night  ?  Why,  grand ! 
Wouldn't  that  be  fun!  She  gave  so  finished  a  represen 
tation  of  enthusiasm  that  Mary  was  led  into  the  familiarity 
of  an  allusion  to  Mr.  Thatcher. 

"  You  don't  care,  of  course,  but  I'd  like  it  ever  so  much 
better  if  he  could  be  there,"  she  said  roguishly. 

"  Well,  he  can't.  He's  out  West,  a  thousand  or  two 
miles  off !  "  said  Sandra,  reddening. 

"  What,  you  know  where  he  is  every  minute  of  the  time  ? 
Isn't  that  strange  ?  " 

The  two  girls  looked  at  each  other,  and  Sandra  began 
to  laugh  with  the  other  in  spite  of  herself.  Her  mother 
would  not  have  approved ;  her  mother  would  have  warned 
her  that  once  you  let  a  person  like  Mary  Schultze  become 
too  intimate,  you  are  committed  irrevocably  to  the  inti 
macy,  which  is  certain  to  prove  irksome  sometime.  But 
Alexandra  had  been  thinking  lately  that  her  mother,  while 
the  dearest  and  sweetest  that  ever  lived,  and  of  course  thor- 

213 


214  THE  BOABDMAJST  FAMILY 

oughly  qualified  to  advise  on  some  social  matters,  was 
often  mistaken  in  her  judgments  and  outlook  —  or  if  not 
mistaken,  sadly  limited. 

Mr.  Beckley  brought  home  on  the  appointed  evening  a 
Mr.  Bert  Givens  who  had  made  a  fourth  on  some  of  their 
evenings  before,  though  Jiors  concours  as  regarded  dancing, 
as  little  in  need  of  instruction  as  Sandra  herself.  "  Bert's 
a  bear  at  it !  "  Augustus  would  say.  He  was  in  the  men's 
wear  department  at  McChesney's,  so  naturally  Jiors  con 
cours  in  the  matter  of  dress,  too,  a  slender,  pallid  and 
extraordinarily  natty  youth  with  his  hair  brushed  sleekly 
back,  and  a  tie  and  socks  in  tender  summer  hues.  Al 
though  somewhat  taken  with  Sandra,  he  was  still  capable 
of  surveying  her  with  a  coldly  technical  eye,  and  wonder 
ing  how  it  was  that  she  managed  to  create  so  "  nifty  "  an 
effect  in  a  white  suit  which  was  past  the  prime  of  fashion. 
She  had  style,  he  decided ;  and  in  truth,  the  girl  did  have 
a  style  of  her  own,  like  her  good  looks  elusive  yet  authen 
tic. 

The  young  men,  between  them,  had  made  up  a  list 
of  "  joints "  worth  visiting  —  u  The  Green  Bough," 
"Tony's,"  "  All-the-Arts,"  and  so  on.  "We  thought 
we'd  take  the  'bus  down  to  Washington  Square,  and  be 
ginning  at  this  end,  work  around  in  a  sort  of  a  circle  till 
we  got  back — Greenwich  Village,  MacDougal,  Waverly 
Place,  all  through  that  art  student  district,"  Gus  explained. 
"  A  man  I  know  told  me  the  best  places  to  go  to.  They 
aren't  any  of  'era  tough  —  just  kind  of  queer  and  go-as- 
you-please-y,  you  know.  They  mostly  set  a  cheap  table 
d'hote  dinner  —  he  said  the  eating  was  often  pretty  good, 
though  —  and  there's  always  a  weird,  long-haired  crowd. 
I  thought  it  would  be  interesting  for  Miss  Boardman, 
coming  here  from  the  West,  to  see  that  side  of  life  here." 

"Well,  I  come  from  the  North  —  from  Hundred-and- 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  215 

Twenty-Eighth  Street/''  said  Givens  facetiously ;  "  and  I've 
never  seen  that  side  of  life  here  either.  Real  New  York 
ers  don't.  Do  they  dance,  d'you  know  ?  " 

"  Sure.  Dance  on  the  tables,  I  guess,  if  you  want  to. 
Everything  goes  down  there,  they  say  —  within  limits,  of 
course,"  Mr.  Beckley  hastened  to  add,  perceiving  alarm  on 
Mary's  face.  Both  the  young  men  noticed  that  Miss 
Boardman  remained  undisturbed;  apparently  she  did  not 
care  whether  the  entertainment  was  respectable  or  not. 

However,  the  first  resorts  they  entered  were  respectable 
to  an  almost  disappointing  degree.  In  one  there  was  a 
quartette  of  "  Plantation  Melodists  "  as  they  were  entitled 
on  the  establishment's  cards,  four  negroes,  attired  as  for 
the  minstrel  stage,  and  going  through  a  program  of  songs 
and  monologues,  than  which  no  drearier  parody  of  either 
fun  or  sentiment  could  be  imagined.  At  another  a  fat, 
very  blonde  woman  wandered  among  the  cabaret  tables, 
pausing  here  and  there  to  sing  a  verse  or  two  pointedly  at 
one  of  the  masculine  patrons  to  the  hysterically  extrava 
gant  amusement  of  his  party.  "  That's  all  fixed  up  before 
hand,  of  course.  They  all  belong  to  some  troupe,"  Augus 
tus  observed  cynically.  Upon  his  motion,  they  went  on; 
and  next  they  came  to  some  half-dozen  of  girls  shepherded 
by  a  wizened  young  gentleman  playing  alternately  the 
violin  or  piano,  as  the  musical  score  demanded,  and  a  tall 
lank  older  man  whose  instrument  was  the  drum,  and  who 
seemed  to  be  the  leader  of  the  whole  flock.  The  girls  were 
dressed  in  sprigged  muslins  with  fichus,  and  corkscrew 
curls  of  the  crinoline  period;  and  one  after  another  they 
arose  and  rendered  ditties  about  the  moon  being  bright  and 
the  breeze  so  light  under  the  Southern  skies,  or  rhythmi 
cally  announced  that  there're  a  hundred  thousand  girls 
but  not  a  one  like  you-oo-oo,  So  true-oo-oo,  With  eyes  so 
blue-oo-oo  —  until  Bert  Givens  in  his  own  language,  balked 


216  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

at  hearing  any  more  of  it.  He  said  this  thing  was  getting 
on  his  nerves. 

"  That  outfit  is  the  Methodist  Church  Choir  from  New 
Galilee,  Connecticut,  I'll  bet !  "  said  he.  "  Full  of  pep, 
aren't  they?  Night  life  in  a  great  city,  hey?  Isn't  it 
dizzy,  though,  Miss  Boardman  ?  And  where  do  we  dance  ? 
They  all  have  cards  up  saying  you  can,  but  I  haven't  seen 
a  decent  floor  yet.  What's  next,  Gus  ?  "  He  took  the  list 
and  ran  over  it.  "  We  don't  seem  to  have  had  much  luck 
playing  these  sure  things  in  order.  Let's  take  a  long  shot 
—  how  about  the  Restaurant  Continentale  ?  " 

To  the  Restaurant  Continentale  they  went  accordingly, 
and  found  it  bigger  and  more  brilliant  than  any  of  those 
yet  visited,  with  a  fine,  wide,  smooth  expanse  of  dancing- 
floor,  from  which  the  surrounding  border  of  tables  was 
divided  by  rich  red  velvet  ropes.  A  band  of  dark-skinned 
artists  in  white  shirts  and  trousers  and  scarlet  sashes,  with 
wreaths  of  scarlet  flowers  slung  about  their  necks,  dis 
coursed  tuneful  and  eminently  dance-able  music  from  the 
dais  at  one  end. 

"  Hawaiians,"  Givens  murmured  knowingly.  "  Hawai- 
ians  from  up  here  between  Avenue  A  and  East  River. 
They  say  there're  more  Italians  there  than  in  Naples. 
Say,  this  is  something  like,  don't  you  think  ?  More  atmos 
phere  to  it,  somehow." 

Gus  remarked  epigrammatically  that  you  might  call  it 
atmosphere  —  to  him  it  seemed  two-thirds  solid  tobacco- 
smoke  !  But  young  Givens  was  right,  as  their  whole  party 
presently  felt,  looking  about  with  quickened  spirits. 
Whatever  they  understood  by  the  term,  this  was  what  they 
had  been  seeking.  Besides  the  tobacco-smoke,  one  was 
conscious  of  bizarre  odours  of  garlic-flavoured  cookery, 
cheap  wines,  cheap  perfumes ;  the  noise  had  the  unfamiliar 
character  of  alien  tongues;  there  was  no  great  difference 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  217 

in  appearance  between  the  swarthy,  moustached,  effer 
vescing  men,  the  chromolike  women  (some  of  them  with 
moustaches,  too ! )  at  the  tables,  and  the  performers  on  the 
platform.  Strangest  thing  of  all,  there  were  numbers 
of  children;  and  near  by  a  portly,  middle-aged  man  was 
feeding  the  year-old  baby  on  his  fat  knees  with  bits  of 
bread  sopped  in  the  thick,  gravy-like  soup  in  front  of  him. 

"  Well,  this  is  Little  Italy  and  Little  Spain  and  Little 
Holland  and  Little  Everywhere,"  Mary  ejaculated.  "  Did 
you  ever!  Do  you  believe  it's  clean? " 

"  I  like  it,"  said  Sandra. 

They  found  a  table,  and  the  young  men,  after  a  consul 
tation  with  the  opera-bouffe  looking  waiter,  ordered  spa 
ghetti  and  cheese  and  rye  bread  and  some  of  the  dark  wine 
which  they  observed  their  neighbours  to  be  drinking  out 
of  bulb-shaped  bottles  cased  in  basket-work.  Bert  Givens 
hardily  got  out  his  cigarette-case. 

"  You  don't  mind,  do  you  ?  "  he  asked  Sandra  who  smil 
ingly  shook  her  head.  Somehow  Bert  had  a  notion  that 
Miss  Boardman  was  much  more  of  a  sport  —  in  a  per 
fectly  ladylike  way,  of  course  —  than  the  other  girl. 
"  Newport  —  Lenox  —  Long  Island  —  that  brand,"  he 
thought,  pluming  himself  on  his  discernment  and  knowl 
edge  of  the  world.  "  They  do  whatever  they  want  to, 
those  girls.  They're  too  way-up  to  care  what  people 
think." 

One  of  the  Hawaiians  got  up  and  sang  in  an  agree 
able  throaty  baritone  some  Venetian  boating-song  with  a 
long-drawn  falling  refrain,  that  drew  vigorous  applause 
from  all  around  the  room;  everybody  hammered  lustily, 
calling  for  a  repetition  which  the  soloist  obligingly  ac 
corded. 

"  Catchy  thing,  that."  said  Gus,  although  he  found  to 
his  surprise,  upon  essaying,  that  he  could  not  catch  it; 


218  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

people  around  them  were  humming  and  whistling  it,  under 
the  breath,  with  the  singer.  "  These  dagoes  are  full  of 
music  —  just  full  of  it,"  he  said,  wagging  his  head  appre 
ciatively. 

"  Not  any  fuller  than  Miss  Boardman  here,"  Givens 
said,  seeing  her  make  some  slight  answering  movement  at 
the  opening  bars  of  a  czardas  the  musicians  had  now  begun. 
She  did  not  beat  time;  it  was  as  if  the  music  pulsed 
through  her  whole  body.  "  She's  just  like  one  of  'em." 

"  Why,  Mr.  Givens !  "  Mary  uttered,  shocked. 

"  I  only  meant  kind  of  foreign,  you  know  —  I  —  I  — " 

"  Oh,  I  don't  mind !  "  Sandra  assured  him,  laughing. 
She  fell  to  on  the  pungent  dishes  with  frank  zest.  Mary 
minced  politely  in  her  plate.  She  was  quite  sure  that  the 
place  was  not  clean,  and  was,  moreover,  possessed  by  a 
vague  uneasiness  about  it  and  about  her  companions. 
The  men  liked  that  nasty,  sour  wine  too  much,  and  they 
were  getting  altogether  too  free-and-easy  smoking  and 
talking  —  even  Gus,  who  had  always  shown  himself  such 
a  gentleman.  Miss  Boardman  seemed  to  be  perfectly 
reckless,  and  evidently  had  no  idea  (or  else  didn't  care) 
how  conspicuous  she  was  with  that  chalky-white  face  and 
thin  red  lips  and  black  hair  and  black  eyes.  Sundry  young 
men  —  perfect  strangers !  —  had  walked  up  and  down  past 
their  table  and  stared  at  her ;  Mary's  conviction  that  they 
were  not  staring  at  herself  was  as  well-grounded  as  it  was 
unconsciously  pathetic.  She  wished  uncomfortably  that 
they  had  stopped  in  one  of  the  other  cafes  where  you  under 
stood  what  the  people  were  singing  and  talking  about,  at 
least.  This  was  so  strange  and  outlandish.  Even  the 
familiar  strains  of  ff  I  like  a  chicken  in  the  spring-time  " 
failed  to  reassure  her. 

"  Dance  ?  "  said  young  Givens  to  Sandra.  They  stood 
up. 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  219 

"  Nobody's  on  the  floor  yet.  You  don't  want  to  be  the 
only  ones,  do  you  ?  "  Mary  faintly  expostulated. 

"  Oh,  piffle !     Why  not  ?  "  said  Bert  discourteously. 

"  You  and  Mr.  Beckley  come  along  then,  and  keep  us 
company,"  said  Sandra  as  she  and  Givens  moved  off.  A 
few  more  couples  appeared;  so  Gus  and  Mary  followed 
them,  at  first  with  misgivings,  then  in  rapidly  increasing 
confidence. 

"  I  believe  I've  got  the  hang  of  it  at  last,  Mary.  We 
aren't  having  any  trouble." 

"  Oh,  Gus,  it's  lovely !  "  breathed  Mary  ecstatically,  all 
her  trouble  momentarily  forgotten. 

But  a  new  one  was  in  store.  The  last  chord  was 
thrummed,  blared  and  pounded  out ;  they  were  just  sitting 
down,  both  men  had  gone  off  to  waylay  the  waiter  for  ice- 
water,  when  the  music  began  again,  a  one-step  this  time, 
and  —  horrors  !  One  of  those  piratical  starers  walked  up 
to  Miss  Boardman  with  as  much  confidence  as  if  he  had 
known  her  all  his  life,  and  said  in  hissing  syllables  under 
his  little  black  moustache :  "  You  dance  zees  wiss  me, 
senorita,  please  ?  You  gif  me  mooch  delight  ?  "  And 
horrors  upon  horrors,  Miss  Boardman  did  it ! 

"  Hello,  what's  become  of  our  other  girl  ?  "  said  Bert 
Givens,  returning;  a  form  of  inquiry  which  showed  what 
a  damaging  effect  the  "  atmosphere  "  had  already  had  upon 
him,  too.  But  alas,  Mr.  Beckley  had  also  succumbed  to 
it ;  for,  upon  being  informed  what  had  occurred,  he  merely 
said :  "  Had  his  nerve,  didn't  he  ?  Got  a  cigarette,  Bert  ?  " 
And  Bert  said  that  any  girl  that  could  dance  like  that  was 
bound  to  be  popular ! 

They  watched  Sandra  circle  for  a  while,  presently  with 
another  olive-complexioned  partner  and  dancing  another 
step  of  such  complications  that  only  one  or  two  couples 
attempted  it ;  and,  at  the  next  pause,  a  big  young  man  in 


220  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

what  Miss  Schultze  called  a  sailor-suit  with  U.  8.  8.  Lou 
isiana  in  gold  letters  around  the  band  of  his  cap,  rose  from 
a  table  where  he  had  been  sitting  with  three  more  sailor- 
suits,  and  standing  in  front  of  Sandra,  said  in  a  boyishly 
grave,  direct  manner :  "  You're  the  professional  here, 
aren't  you,  Miss  ?  I'd  like  the  next,  if  you  please." 

"  All  right,"  said  Sandra,  conveniently  forgetting  to 
clear  up  the  question  of  her  status  in  the  Restaurant  Con- 
tinentale.  She  danced  with  all  the  sailors  from  the  battle 
ship  Louisiana  in  turn.  They  were  nice  boys.  "  1  sup 
pose  they'd  have  to  go  and  fight  if  we  ever  got  into  a 
war.  And  if  they're  good  enough  to  fight  for  me,  they're 
good  enough  to  dance  with  me !  "  said  Alexandra  Board- 
man  to  herself.  I  think  the  shade  of  that  stout  old  mar 
iner,  Commodore  Chase,  though  he  doubtless  observed  the 
line  between  enlisted  men  and  oificers  with  the  utmost 
severity,  would  have  looked  upon  his  granddaughter  with 
approval.  And  when  one  of  them,  with  a  hesitating  gal 
lantry  invited  her  to  sit  down  with  them  and  "  have  some 
thing,"  she  was  not  in  the  least  insulted. 

"  Oh,  thank  you,  but  the  management  doesn't  allow  it," 
she  said  glibly  in  the  hearing  of  the  appalled  Mary,  and 
to  the  amusement  of  their  two  escorts.  Young  Givens 
shook  his  head  at  Miss  Boardman,  grinning. 

"  That  was  a  quick  come-back !  "  said  he,  not  without 
real  admiration.  One  of  the  sailors  directing  a  shrewd 
glance  around  the  party,  drew  Bert  aside,  and  spoke  con 
fidentially  under  cover  of  a  vocal  selection  by  the  musicians 
during  an  interval  while  the  dancers  rested. 

"  Say,  the  kid  made  a  kind  of  a  break,  didn't  he  ?  Of 
fering  to  treat,  you  know?  Say,  she's  some  swell  dame 
out  for  a  good  time,  she  don't  belong  here,  hey?  You 
don't  any  of  you  belong  here,  honest  ?  " 

—  er  —  that's   all   right !  "   drawled  Bert,   dis- 


THE  BOAEDMAlSr  FAMILY  221 

seinbliiig  an  immense  inward  gratification.  "  That's  per 
fectly  all  right  —  er  —  old  chap !  ''  It  was  a  superb  mo 
ment  —  for  a  clerk  in  the  men's  wear  department  at  Mc- 
Chesney's. 

But  now,  as  they  sat  near  the  musicians'  stand,  a  short, 
bald  man  whom  they  might  have  noticed  before  undem- 
onstratively  active  about  the  place,  came  towards  them, 
singling  Sandra  out  and  looking  her  over  with  a  keen  but 
not  unfriendly  eye.  In  fact,  he  smiled  benevolently, 
while  revealing  the  fact  that  he  was  the  "  management." 
"  Where  do  you  dance  regularly  ? "  he  wanted  to  know. 
And  then  some  expression  he  saw  or  fancied  he  saw  on 
her  face  moved  him  to  add  quickly :  "  I  mean  what  theatre  ? 
I  know  you  don't  dance  in  my  cabaret."  As  Sandra  stood 
before  him,  still  dumb,  Mr.  Richter  —  he  was  a  Swiss  by 
birth,  a  naturalized  American  now,  but  a  native  of  every 
country  on  this  created  globe  if  travel,  experience  and 
familiarity  count  for  anything  —  had  another  illumina 
tion.  "  Eh  ?  You'd  rather  not  say  ?  "  he  said,  smiling 
more  broadly  and  benevolently  than  ever. 

"  I'd  rather  dance,"  Sandra  said ;  and  at  that  instant 
the  band  struck  into  Sinding's  tarantelle.  "  I'll  dance 
that !  "  said  the  girl,  upon  what  wild  impulse  she  never 
could  tell. 

Eichter  stared  for  half  a  second ;  then  with  a  lightning 
readiness,  he  wheeled,  shouted  an  order  at  the  orchestra, 
silencing  them,  seized  Sandra  by  the  hand  and  led  her 
to  the  centre  of  the  room,  bawled  some  announcement  to 
the  company,  repeating  it  in  half  a  dozen  languages  with 
equal  speed  and  facility,  signalled  to  the  music  again,  and 
bowed  himself  back  from  the  girl  with  a  flourish.  The 
guitars  hummed  resonantly,  the  castanets  bickered,  Sandra 
danced. 

She  was  scarcely  conscious  of  anything  but  the  music. 


222  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

The  crowd,  some  of  tbem  standing  on  chairs  and  tables, 
the  four  sailors  gaping  transfixed,  Mary  Schultze  shrink 
ing  into  the  background,  Eichter's  smiling  face  —  she  saw 
them  as  she  heard  the  rising  applause,  or  felt  the  heat, 
or  the  waxed  floor  beneath  her  swift  feet,  as  mere  incidents. 
She  came  to  her  senses  (as  she  said  afterwards)  only  to 
wards  the  finale  when  there  burst  out  a  great  uproar  of 
cheering,  stamping  and  clapping,  and  some  Latin  enthu 
siast  threw  down  a  handful  of  money  at  her  feet,  thereby 
setting  a  fashion;  it  rattled  all  around  her  and  a  dollar 
struck  her  on  the  shoulder.  She  bowed  and  smiled  by  a 
kind  of  instinct. 

Here  another  impossible  thing  occurred ;  it  was  a  night 
of  impossible  happenings.  To  wit:  Mr.  Max  Levison 
turned  up  in  the  exact  nick  of  time,  with  the  precision  of 
melodrama,  a  god  from  the  machine.  He  turned  up  to 
some  purpose,  shouldering  through  the  audience,  and 
grasping  Sandra's  arm.  "  That's  right !  Just  bow ! 
Don't  give  'em  any  encore  —  don't  you  do  it !  Just 
bow !  "  he  admonished  her  energetically.  "  Hey  ?  How'd 
I  get  here  ? "  He  laughed  as  he  echoed  her  dazed  ques 
tion.  "  Why,  I  often  come  here.  I  just  happened  in  to 
night,  though  —  just  happened  in.  How's  that  for  luck, 
hey  ?  The  Lord  loves  the  Irish,  don't  he  ? "  And  here 
Mr.  Levison,  apparently  realizing  fully  the  depth  of  differ 
ence  between  his  own  race  and  that  which  he  named,  and 
savouring  an  exquisite  joke  in  the  juxtaposition,  chuckled 
with  intense  relish.  Al  the  while  he  was  steadily  making 
their  way  towards  the  exit.  "  That's  all  right.  I'll  get 
you  out  of  it  —  yes,  I  spoke  to  Richter  just  now  —  he 
understands  —  he  knows  me  —  I've  been  coming  here  for 
years.  I  hadn't  a  notion  of  finding  you  here,  though. 
How's  that  for  luck?  This  is  the  time  for  you  to  make 
your  get-away,  see  ?  Right  now,  see  ?  "  said  Mr.  Levison 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  223 

whose  equipment  as  a  manager  of  theatrical  enterprises 
evidently  included  a  fine  sense  of  climax.  "  It  makes  a 
better  effect,  don't  you  see  ?  Hey,  taxi !  Call  a  taxi  out 
there !  Beg  pardon,  Miss  Boardman  ?  "  At  last  pausing 
to  catch  what  Sandra  had  been  trying  to  tell  him  for  the 
last  two  minutes,  he  immediately  altered  the  order. 
"Hey!  Call  two  taxis!  Your  party,  did  you  say? 
Where  are  they?  Oh  —  er  —  Mr.  Er  — !  Pleased  to 
meet  you.  Come  on  now,  everybody !  " 


CHAPTEK  VI 

SANDKA  used  to  say  that  her  sudden  attainment  of 
fame  —  or  that  popularity  or  notoriety  which  Lev- 
isoii  contended  amount  to  the  same  thing  —  was  due  to 
luck,  nothing  but  luck.  People  thought  this  a  mere  piece 
of  posing  with  her,  but  she  was  honest.  If  she  had  not 
gone  with  Mary  and  Gus  and  Bert  that  evening,  if  they 
had  not  stumbled  on  the  Cafe  Continentale,  if  she  had  not 
been  insanely  prompted  to  dance,  if  Levison  had  chosen 
some  other  place  of  entertainment  —  in  fine,  if  nothing 
had  happened  which  did  happen,  nobody  knows  how  long 
she  might  have  been  on  the  difficult  climb,  if  indeed  she 
ever  arrived.  Thus  Sandra  argued  to  herself,  and  would 
have  argued  to  any  one  that  inquired,  if  Levison  had  not 
counselled  otherwise ;  if  he  had  not  forbade  her,  in  truth. 

"  You  don't  know  how  to  put  up  a  front,  so  you'd  better 
not  talk  at  all.  It  makes  a  better  effect  anyhow,  see? 
Unapproachable  —  that's  your  style.  It  doesn't  make 
people  mad  —  not  if  it's  done  right.  They  kind  of  like 
it.  You're  Sandra,  you  know.  The  Sandra  —  the  only 
Sandra!  Nobody  can  get  at  you  at  all.  You  don't  go 
anywhere  except  with  some  regular  strong-arm  of  a  lady's- 
maid  and  chaperon  with  a  thirty-degrees-below-zero  eye. 
You  came  down  to  the  theatre  every  night  in  the  limou 
sine,  and  who  is  this  that  meets  you  at  the  stage-door,  and 
sends  the  dress-suit  lads,  and  the  club  rounders  and  the 
college-boys  on  their  way?  Who  but  trusty  Max,  the 
heroine's  faithful  follower  ?  Who  kindly  but  firmly  inter- 

224 


THE  BOAEDMAK  FAMILY  225 

views  the  newspaper-man,  and  the  photographer  and  the 
ladies'  tailor  and  the  beauty-doctor  and  the  costume-shark 
and  all  the  rest?  Max  again!  He'll  give  'em  all  the 
facts  they  want,  and  even  some  things  that  aren't  facts. 
But  no  use  for  the  public  in  general  to  try  to  see  Sandra. 
It's  not  that  you're  ungracious  —  oh,  far,  far  from  that ! 
You  love  the  dear  public,  only  you  can't  stand  it.  It  gets 
your  artistic  sensibilities  all  frazzled  up.  You'd  fly  to 
pieces  —  blow  up  —  die  right  then  and  there!  That's 
your  style !  "  Mr.  Levison  pronounced  genially  but  imper 
atively. 

Sandra  acquiesced  readily  enough;  he  was  actually  not 
far  out  in  his  jocose  analysis  of  her  temperament;  and 
though  she  knew  perfectly  well  that  this  guarded  isolation, 
this  ostentatious  hedging  about  with  mystery  were  only 
more  of  Levison's  many  devices  to  whet  the  public  interest 
and  curiosity,  to  bang  the  big  bell,  in  short,  she  was  too 
relieved  and  too  inordinately  grateful  to  him  to  care. 

For  it  seemed  to  Sandra  that,  after  luck,  Levison  had 
done  everything  for  her,  although  the  truth  was  she  did 
not  know  what  he  had  done,  did  not  know  exactly  what 
anybody  had  done  in  the  excitement  and  scrambling  hurry 
of  the  days  following  that  Continentale  episode.  She  al 
ways  remembered  with  a  vivid  fidelity  the  strange  look 
and  smell  and  feeling  of  the  little  empty  Theatre  of  the 
Marionettes,  the  morning  she  went  down  to  dance.  It 
was  being  renovated  before  the  opening  of  the  season  the 
first  week  in  October,  and  there  was  scaffolding  up,  and 
dirty  drab  cloths  spread  over  the  seats,  and  the  pretty 
Pompadour  decorations,  crystal  pendants,  fragile  gilded 
mouldings  were  hardly  visible  by  a  light  half  artificial. 
She  remembered  the  serious,  intent  and  alert  face  of  the 
Italian  orchestra-leader  below  her,  his  moving  baton,  his 
attention  miraculously  divided  between  herself  and  the 


226  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

score;  the  musicians,  strings,  brasses  and  wood-winds,  in 
shirt-sleeves  mostly  and  not  greatly  interested  for  their 
part,  sawing  and  blowing ;  the  stage-hands,  and  carpenters, 
arrested  in  their  duties,  looking  on  from  the  step-ladders 
and  platforms ;  a  white  blur  out  there  amongst  the  farthest 
orchestra-chairs  which  she  knew  to  be  Mr.  Charles  Rosen 
berg's  summer-suit;  and  near  at  hand,  quite  distinguish 
able  in  one  of  the  stage  boxes,  the  other  Rosenberg,  listen 
ing  silently  while  Levison  talked  in  a  lowered  voice  with 
those  Israelitish  gestures  to  which  he  reverted  in  moments 
of  forgetfulness.  Afterwards  the  coloured  woman  in  the 
dressing-room  helped  her  change  back  to  her  street- 
clothing;  and  the  three  Jewish  gentlemen  took  her  some 
where  to  an  office  where  another  Jewish  gentleman,  an 
attorney-at-law,  as  it  appeared,  offered  her  something  to 
sign;  and  she  signed  it,  and  they  all  signed  it;  and  she 
remembered  the  odd  expression  with  which  the  other 
Rosenberg  read  out  her  name  as  he  looked  at  the  paper. 

"  Boardman !  You  can't  put  that  over.  Boardman  — 
Nah !  What  are  you  going  to  do  'bout  that,  Maxy  ?  " 

Levison  considered  a  brief  moment.  "  Well,  her  name's 
Alexandra  —  Sandra  for  short.  What's  the  matter  with 
calling  her  Mademoiselle  Sandra  ?  Or  no !  —  Say,  listen ! 
Call  her  La  Sandra.  That'll  go  big  on  the  bill-boards. 
La  Sandra.  Some  name,  hey  ?  " 

Charles  Rosenberg  said :  "  Uh-huh."  But  the  other 
Rosenberg,  the  older  one,  who  had  been  lighting  a  cigar, 
made  a  slight  negative  motion  of  the  head;  then  he  an 
nounced  an  Olympian  decision. 

"Nah!  You're  'way  off.  Call  her  Sandra.  Just 
Sandra  and  no  dees  nor  lahs  nor  frills  to  it.  Sandra." 

After  a  pause,  Levison  said :  "  Well,  that  listens  all  right 
to  me."  Which  apparently  settled  the  question,  Sandra 
herself  not  having  been  consulted  at  all.  Perhaps  this 


THE  BOARDUAN  FAMILY  227 

was  just  as  well,  for,  as  she  confessed  to  Levison  after 
wards,  she  felt  as  if  she  were  in  a  trance. 

"  I  don't  have  to  do  anything  but  dance  —  that's  all 
I  can  do,  anyhow.  But  I  don't  have  to  worry  about  those 
other  things,  do  I  ?  "  she  asked  childishly. 

Mr.  Levison  informed  her  that  she  sure  didn't !  "  Your 
interests  are  going  to  be  looked  after  by  your  uncle,  and 
you  can  believe  he's  not  going  to  go  to  sleep  over  'em.  I 
mean  me  —  Max  himself,"  he  added,  interpreting  cor 
rectly  her  bewildered  look ;  and  he  laughed,  observing  that 
they  often  acted  dazed  that  way  — "  But  it  doesn't  last 
long  —  the  daze  doesn't !  " 

However,  either  he  was  sometimes  mistaken,  or  Sandra 
was  an  exception;  for  months  later,  there  would  still  be 
moments  when  the  girl  felt  as  if  she  were  going  about  in 
a  dream,  completely  mistress  of  herself  only  while  danc 
ing,  at  which  times  indeed  she  had  always  been  most  col 
lected  and  aware.  Her  nerves  that  were  unstable  enough 
ordinarily,  her  slight  frame  that  looked  as  brittle  as  the 
stem  of  a  flower,  could  both  endure  and  execute  with 
astounding  strength,  vigour,  reliability,  when  called  upon ; 
they  never  failed  her.  The  puzzle,  the  thing  that  gave 
her  an  ever-present  sense  of  unreality  was  the  stupefying 
ease  with  which  the  heights  had  been  reached.  Of  stage- 
life  she  saw  scarcely  any  more  than  in  previous  experi 
ences  as  an  amateur ;  in  private  she  worked  with  the  same 
ambition  and  constancy;  she  still  had  times«of  discourage 
ment,  she  was  still  always  trying  to  do  her  best  and  still 
never  quite  doing  it,  never  satisfying  her  own  ideals ;  noth 
ing  about  herself  had  undergone  the  least  change  —  yet 
now  she  was  Sandra,  the  Sandra,  even  as  Levison  said! 
She  had  naively  expected  some  tremendous,  some  vital  dif 
ference  —  and  lo,  here  was  no  difference  whatever. 

No  difference  except  as  concerned  worldly  goods,  that 


228  THE  BOAKDMAJST  FAMILY 

is.  Sandra  surveyed  her  first  cheque  in  the  same  chaos  of 
wonder  and  disbelief  and  humbleness  of  spirit  and  grati 
fied  vanity  with  which  she  heard  her  first  round  of  ap 
plause,  and  bowed  to  her  first  curtain-call.  She  had  never 
earned  a  penny  in  her  life ;  it  was  more  in  one  lump  than 
her  father  could  have  afforded  to  give  her  in  a  year ;  more, 
she  divined,  than  many  a  man  of  her  acquaintance  made 
in  a  like  short  period.  And  this  was  only  the  beginning, 
Levison  told  her.  "  If  they  think  I'm  worth  that  much, 
I'll  show  them !  "  she  thought  arrogantly ;  and  then,  with 
a  flash  of  terror  that  maybe  she  would  never  be  able  to  do 
so  well  again,  that  she  might  lose  her  powers,  that  she 
ought  to  have  begun  long  ago  —  long  ago.  She  sat  down 
and  wrote  to  the  family  at  home.  "...  I  didn't  tell 
you  anything  about  it,  because  I  knew  you  would  object, 
and  I  didn't  want  to  make  you  feel  badly,  or  to  have  any 
fuss.  It  seems  underhanded,  but  I  thought  it  was  best 
...  I  have  wanted  to  do  something  like  this  (I  didn't 
quite  know  what)  for  a  long  while,  and  now  I  am  doing 
it,  and  getting  along  all  right,  as  you  see,  so  you 
don't  need  to  worry  over  me  any  more.  I  can  take  care 
of  myself.  I  want  Dad  to  take  out  the  money  I  owe  him, 
and  put  the  rest  in  bank;  I  didn't  know  quite  how  much 
it  was,  but  am  sending  enough,  I  think,  to  cover  it.  Mr. 
Levison  has  given  me  the  name  of  a  banking-firm  here, 
people  he  knows,  Kahn,  Loew  &  Company,  that  I  am  going 
to  open  an  account  with  ...  I  suppose  people  at  home 
as  soon  as  they  find  out  who  '  Sandra '  is,  will  talk  like 
everything,  but  it  doesn't  make  any  difference  about  them. 
I  mean  whatever  they  think  and  say  is  of  no  conse 
quence  .  .  . 

"  The  Marionettes  is  a  new  theatre  that  the  Eosenbergs 
started  here  last  year  .  .  .  They  do  have  the  smartest 
posters ;  Mr.  Levison  told  me  he  had  to  pay  fifteen  hundred 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  229 

for  just  one  of  the  (  Little  Bo-Peep '  bills,  but  he  says  it 
was  worth  it,  for  you  can't  pass  it  by.  The  artist  was 

K .  Of  course  they  get  the  very  highest-paid  men, 

the  very  best.  .  .  .  The  scenery  and  costumes  are  by  the 
same  sort  of  people,  perfectly  stunning.  You  ought  to 
see  mine  for  the  i  Peacock  Dance ' ;  it's  cloth  of  gold  and 
some  kind  of  iridescent  gauze  changing  to  steel-blue  and 
purple,  and  I  have  to  wear  a  headdress  of  feathers,  with 
a  band  and  chains  of  pearls  and  things  — '•  false,  of  course, 
but  they  had  to  be  made  especially  and  cost  as  much  as  lots 
of  real  tiaras  you  see.  Mr.  Levison  had  it  put  in  the  con 
tract  that  the  management  were  to  furnish  my  costumes, 
or  I  don't  know  where  I'd  be !  In  the  other,  the  grotesque 
dance,  where  I  come  on  as  the  Queen  of  Spades,  the  top- 
card  in  the  pack,  I  have  a  very  Chinese-y  costume  of  black 
and  blue  and  jade-green  brocade  with  magnificent  embroi 
deries  that  are  the  real  thing,  imported  from  China,  and 
huge  silk-and-bead  tassels,  and  red  lacquer  clogs.  This  is 
the  dance  that  made  the  hit  —  the  biggest  hit,  that  is. 
The  music  is  '  Tambourin  Cliinois '  by  Kreisler,  you 
know;  Signor  Galetti  made  an  arrangement  of  it  for  the 
orchestra.  .  .  . 

"Mr.  Levison  prophesies  three  hundred  nights  for 
'  Little  Bo-Peep ' ;  after  that,  I  suppose  they  will  take  it 
on  the  road.  I  don't  think  I  care  to  travel  with  a  road 
show,  though  most  of  the  company  will  probably  go ;  Mr. 
Levison  is  against  it.  However,  that  won't  be  until  next 
season;  when  it  comes,  you  must  all  go  and  see  it.  But 
I  wish  you  could  come  here  and  see  me  in  it;  I'll  send 
Mother  the  money  if  she'll  come  ..." 

To  say  that  this  letter,  with  something  less  than  a  bale 
of  sample  posters,  advertisements,  photographs  and  news 
paper-notices  raised  the  commotion  in  the  Boardman 
household  that  Sandra  had  forseen  and  avoided,  would 


230  THE  BOARDMAlsT  FAMILY 

be  only  partly  true.  The  girl  expected  to  be  condemned 
unreservedly,  not  reckoning  on  their  pride  and  their  af 
fection.  They  could  not  have  been  angry  with  her  long  or 
deeply  in  any  event,  but  at  first  they  were  too  stunned 
to  be  angry  at  all.  And,  alas  for  Boardman  traditions, 
the  first  item  that  emerged  to  fix  their  attention  was  the 
figure  of  Sandra's  weekly  salary!  In  fact,  families  even 
more  exalted,  if  any  such  exist,  might  well  have  been 
arrested  by  it ;  it  was  of  that  incredible  spaciousness  which 
we  have  all  read  about  in  connection  with  the  theatrical 
profession  as  we  read  about  the  dimensions  of  the  Grand 
Canon.  And  money  talks;  yes,  money  is  most  eloquent, 
whether  we  will  or  no,  amongst  clowns  or  gentlefolk, 
Boardmans  or  nobodies.  It  went  farther  than  they  them 
selves  were  aware  towards  converting  the  family  to  the 
view  that  Sandra  was  a  great  artist,  and  as  such,  exempt 
from  judgment  —  farther  than  any  of  her  triumphs  or 
achievements.  Mrs.  Richard,  when  she  at  last  came  to 
think  everything  over,  was  more  hurt  by  Sandra's  not  un 
natural  supposition  that  the  family  would  "  make  a  fuss  " 
than  by  anything  the  girl  had  done  or  said. 

"  We  wouldn't  have  said  a  word.  We  never  have  said 
anything;  we  have  let  her  do  just  as  she  chose.  I  always 
knew  that  Sandra  wanted  to  —  to  have  a  career.  I  don't 
see  why  she  thought  we'd  stand  in  her  way.  It  was  very 
unjust  of  her !  " 

"  Oh,  don't  talk  like  that,  Lucy !  We  would  have  ob 
jected,  of  course.  I  never  expected  to  see  a  daughter  of 
mine  on  the  stage  —  but  I  don't  know  what  we  can  do 
about  it  now.  It's  all  fixed  and  settled,  it  seems,"  said 
Richard  gloomily.  u  She  ought  to  have  told  us.  "Not 
but  that  it  would  probably  have  turned  out  the  same  way 
in  the  end;  I  doubt  if  we  could  have  stopped  her.  But 
she  ought  to  have  told  us.  As  it  is,  outsiders  have  known 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  231 

about  it  before  we  did  —  actually  they've  known  more 
about  Sandra's  affairs  than  her  own  father  and  mother! 
I  don't  like  that  idea  —  but  it  can't  be  helped  now !  "  He 
looked  at  the  scintillating  amount  Sandra  named  with  a 
return  of  wonder.  "  Good  gracious,  do  you  suppose  they 
pay  them  all  at  this  rate?  And  Sandra  seems  to  be  ex 
pecting  more  after  a  while !  " 

"  Richard,  you  —  you're  not  going  to  do  that  ?  What 
Sandra  said  ?  Pay  yourself  out  of  her  money  ?  You're 
not  going  to  ?  "  his  wife  asked,  somehow  a  little  nervously. 

"  I'll  open  an  account  for  her  at  our  bank  here,"  said 
Sandra's  father  with  something  like  a  sigh. 

He  lay  awake  a  good  while  that  night,  thinking  about 
Sandra  when  she  was  a  little  girl  —  about  a  time  when  he 
had  taken  her  to  a  circus  —  about  how  he  taught  her  to 
swim  one  summer  up  at  Wequetonsing  —  about  some 
photographs  he  had  made  with  that  old  box-camera,  the 
first  one  they  had,  of  Sandra  on  the  back  porch  holding 
Frumpy  in  her  arms,  or  one  of  Frumpy's  kittens.  Good 
Lord,  he  had  not  thought  of  Frumpy  these  twenty  years; 
the  old  cat  must  have  been  dead  at  least  that  long!  It 
seemed  to  him  the  little  girl  was  dead  too  —  dead  and  gone 
for  ever.  He  heard  a  sound  by  his  side  that  moved  him 
to  reach  out  a  hand  and  to  ask  gently :  "  What's  the 
matter,  Lucy  ? " 

"  Oh,  Dick,  she  said  she  didn't  need  us  any  m-more 
—  that  is  —  it  wasn't  that  exactly,  but  that's  what  she 
meant,"  sobbed  Sandra's  mother.  "  Of  course,  she's  grown 
up  —  and  making  all  that  money  —  I  don't  w-want  to  be 
silly,  but  —  but  — " 

"  I  know,  my  dear,  I  know,"  said  Richard.  They  tried 
to  comfort  each  other  in  the  dark. 

Afterwards  they  tried  also  most  gallantly  to  enact  en 
thusiastic  approval ;  because,  as  Mrs.  Richard  pointed  out, 


232  THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY 

it  would  affect  Sandra's  art  disastrously  if  she  felt  that 
she  had  displeased  them.  "  I  have  known  her  to  be  ter 
ribly  upset  by  a  hostile  atmosphere  or  criticism,  so  that 
she  couldn't  dance  at  all.  It's  temperament,  you  know," 
said  the  poor  lady,  clinging  desperately,  in  spite  of  her 
sad  intuitions,  to  the  figment  that  parents  are  necessary 
to  their  children.  She  went  about  answering  questions, 
smilingly  receiving  congratulations,  writing  letters  to 
Sandra  full  of  applause  and  praise  and  playful  correction 
—  all  the  while  in  an  inward  revolt  which  she  knew  to  be 
unreasonable  and  told  herself  moreover  was  unworthy  and 
ungrateful.  Why  could  she  not  be  more  glad  of  having 
this  brilliant  and  gifted  child,  why  could  she  not  be  more 
proud ?  Why,  indeed?  Perhaps  the  lives  of  people  at 
tached  to  celebrities  are  not  so  interesting  and  enviable 
as  we  are  prone  to  imagine,  for,  when  all's  said  and  done, 
who  really  wants  to  be  valet  to  a  hero? 

There  was  one  member  of  the  Boar  dm  an  family,  how 
ever,  who  spiritedly  refused  to  be  a  party  to  the  conspiracy 
of  commendation,  and  that  was  Everett.  He  heard  about 
Sandra's  professional  debut  with  acute  mortification, 
equally  shocked  at  the  idea  of  his  sister  being  in  such 
a  position  and  at  the  deliberate  secrecy  with  which  the 
thing  had  been  accomplished. 

"  Write  to  her  ?  Why,  I  don't  know  what  to  say !  I 
can't  pretend  to  be  pleased.  I  don't  know  what  to  make 
of  it.  I  can't  imagine  what  got  into  Sandra !  "  he  said. 
"  We've  once  in  a  while  talked  about  her  going  on  the 
stage,  but  I  —  why,  I  wasn't  in  earnest,  I  didn't  for  a 
minute  believe  she  would.  I  never  dreamed  of  such  a 
thing.  I  thought  this  studying  dancing  was  just  one  of 
those  weird  freaks  girls  take.  Like  Estelle  Aldis  going 
off  and  setting  up  that  tea-house  for  motor-tourists, 
you  know.  I  supposed  Sandra  was  just  crazy  to  do 


THE  BOAKDMAJST  FAMILY  233 

something,  like  the  rest  of  them;  they  think  it's 
the  smart  thing  to  do  something.  But  I  never 
thought  —  Why,  it's  abominable !  And  then  to  go  spring 
ing  it  on  us  this  way!  She  knew  we'd  never  consent  in 
this  wide  world  —  she  knew  /  wouldn't,  anyhow.  Good 
reason  she  kept  it  so  dark!  I  hate  to  think  of  Sandra 
running  down  that  way  —  doing  cheap,  tricky  things  like 
that.  It's  Xew  York,  that's  what  has  done  it,"  said  the 
young  man,  shaking  his  head  in  depression.  "  It's  bound 
to  have  an  effect  on  anybody  as  impressionable  as  she  is. 
She's  got  to  thinking  about  money  the  whole  time.  Her 
letters  are  full  of  it.  Money  and  some  kind  of  sensa 
tional  business  like  this,  that's  all  she  cares  about.  Why, 
she  says  so  in  so  many  words!  What  people  think  and 
feel  here  at  home  is  '  of  no  consequence.'  Her  family 
and  all  her  friends  that  have  known  her  all  her  life  are 
'  of  no  consequence ' !  She  did  have  the  grace  to  keep 
our  name  out  of  it,  that's  something  to  be  thankful  for. 
I  suppose  it  actually  did  strike  her  as  a  little  incongruous 
to  mix  up  Miss  Boardman  with  a  lot  of  chorus-girls  and 
low  comedians  and  second-rate  musicians  and  Jew  theatri 
cal  producers  like  this  Levison  she  keeps  referring  to 
every  other  word.  If  that  fellow  didn't  start  out  as 
Levi's-son,  I  miss  my  guess.  Max  Levison !  That  name's 
a  give-away!  And  his  friends  Kahn,  Loew  and  Com 
pany!  I  expect  all  that  was  a  little  too  much  even  for 
Sandra,"  said  Everett,  fiercely  humorous.  "Well,  you 
can  pretend  to  like  it  if  you  want  to.  I  won't !  " 

His  grandmother  broke  the  painful  silence  that  followed 
by  asking:  "  Can't  you  do  something,  Everett  ?  Couldn't 
you  get  Sandra  to  —  to  break  her  contract,  if  that's  the 
proper  term  ?  I  mean  couldn't  you  get  it  annulled  some 
how?" 

"  No,  no,  that  couldn't  be  done.     I  wouldn't  persuade 


234  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

Sandra  to  try  anything  like  that/7  said  Everett  hastily. 
Then  he  explained  to  the  old  lady  in  a  manner  which  he 
strove  to  keep  from  being  pitying  or  patronizing.  "  You 
can't  do  things  like  that,  Grandma.  A  contract's  a  con 
tract.  And  anyhow,  think  of  the  publicity !  " 

"  Well,  as  I  understand  it,  it  only  lasts  for  a  year,  and 
Sandra  doesn't  have  to  renew  it,"  said  Mrs.  Alexander. 
"  In  the  meantime,  we  may  as  well  put  the  best  face  we 
can  on  the  matter." 

"  I  can't  put  any  face  on  it  at  all,  and  I'm  not  going 
to  try,"  Everett  said  implacably.  He  must  have  been 
as  good  as  his  word,  for  in  the  course  of  time  people  shied 
away  from  the  subject  when  in  his  company;  they  grew 
wary  even  of  mentioning  his  sister's  name.  You  might 
have  thought  nobody  knew  he  had  a  sister.  And  as  to 
Sandra  herself,  she  cried  bitterly  over  the  one  letter  he 
wrote  her. 


CHAPTER  VII 

GOING  back  through  the  newspaper-files  of  1912-'13, 
one  may  gather  a  prodigious  amount  of  information 
about  "  Sandra,"  so  picturesquely  varied  and  contra 
dictory  that  it  is  something  of  an  adventure  to  decide 
what  to  believe  —  if  anything!  —  and  what  to  reject. 
She  was  the  daughter  of  a  well-known  California  million 
aire,  masquerading  on  the  stage  under  an  assumed  name ; 
she  was  a  Sicilian  girl  from  some  New  Orleans  slum ;  she 
was  a  Spanish  countess  with  a  romantic  history;  she  was 
a  Roumanian  gipsy  with  no  history  at  all  —  that  would 
bear  repeating.  The  Claudes  discovered  her,  de  Voyna 
discovered  her,  Rosenberg  Brothers  discovered  her,  every 
body  discovered  her  except  the  real  discoverer,  Max 
Levison.  She  got  a  thousand,  two  thousand,  any  number 
of  thousands  you  choose,  a  week;  some  enthusiasts  even 
went  so  far  as  to  calculate  in  dollars  and  cents  exactly 
what  she  got  for  every  step  and  every  minute  of  her  time 
during  the  performance.  Her  hobbies  were  uncut  rubies, 
Persian  cats,  empty  bottles,  aeroplaning,  making  cheese, 
drawing  illustrations  for  the  Bible.  She  would  not  dance 
if  the  leader  of  the  orchestra  had  blue  eyes;  she  would 
not  dance  unless  the  leader  of  the  orchestra  had  blue  eyes. 
She  spent  her  leisure  at  her  castle  in  the  Tyrol,  her 
Rocky  Mountain  cattle-ranch,  her  estate  on  Long  Island, 
her  coffee  plantation  in  Ceylon.  She  was  born  club-footed 
with  one  leg  shorter  than  the  other,  but  a  marvellous  system 
of  physical  training  had  not  only  corrected  these  defects 
but  developed  her  talent.  She  had  had  a  phenomenal 

235 


236  THE  BOAEDMAtf  FAMILY 

voice  and  had  been  educated  for  the  operatic  stage,  — 
but  being  suddenly  struck  dumb  —  as  the  result  of  falling 
down  an  elevator-shaft  from  the  eleventh  floor  —  at  the  age 
of  sixteen,  she  had  turned  her  attention  to  her  present 
art. 

And  so  on  without  limit.  How  much  of  all  this  Levison 
was  indirectly  responsible  for,  nobody  knows;  certainly 
he  himself  could  not  have  told.  He  was  incapable  of 
inventing  any  of  it ;  but  native  shrewdness,  coupled  with 
experience  had  long  ago  taught  Max  the  needlessness  of 
inventive  effort  on  his  part.  There  were  always  stories 
in  circulation,  and  all  he  had  to  do  was  to  hear  them  with 
a  grunt,  a  gesture  non-committal,  or  susceptible  of  any 
sort  of  translation.  So  his  star  was  talked  about,  he  was 
not  too  particular  as  to  what  was  said.  At  the  same  time, 
in  a  private  arid  personal  capacity,  Mr.  Levison  was 
particular  to  an  extreme,  surrounding  Sandra  with  a 
system  of  proprieties  which  scandalous  purpose  might  as 
sail  in  vain,  and  of  which  he  constituted  himself,  as  he 
had  promised,  the  first  outwork.  Seldom  did  she  appear 
in  public  and  never  on  the  stage  without  his  shoebrush 
moustache  potentially  aggressive  in  the  background.  He 
would  always  be  standing  in  the  wings  when  she  went 
on  for  her  dances,  chewing  an  unlighted  cigar,  his  quick 
eyes  here,  there  and  everywhere  except  on  Sandra  her 
self.  He  probably  perceived  her  to  be  the  kind  of  young 
woman  who,  as  a  young  woman,  does  not  require  watch 
ing;  and  as  an  artist,  so  many  were  the  dancers  Max 
had  seen,  so  many  the  celebrities  he  had  "  produced " 
that  one  would  have  had  to  be  more  than  human  to  stir  him 
to  any  demonstrations  now.  He  scarcely  looked  at 
Sandra,  and  never  applauded,  though  it  was  credibly  re 
ported  that  he  sometimes  stimulated  the  applause  "  out 
in  front "  by  mysterious  agencies  which  he  had  at  com- 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  237 

mand.  But  why  should  he  himself  lend  a  hand  to  it? 
"  She's  making  good,  isn't  she  ?  "  he  would  inquire ;  "  well 
— ! "  His  shrug  completed  the  vindication.  And : 
"  Kosenberg  audiences  have  confidence  in  me,  because 
I've  never  handed  'em  a  lemon,"  was  his  favourite  boast. 
Not  one  person  in  a  hundred  of  those  who  crowded  the 
Marionettes  every  night,  or  stood  in  line  and  reserved 
seats  three  weeks  ahead,  had  ever  heard  the  name  of 
Levison,  but  that  mattered  naught ;  their  very  presence  in 
the  theatre  confirmed  him.  As  an  agent  in  bringing 
genius  before  the  world,  he  was  content  with  a  kind  of 
vicarious  renown,  and  well  he  might  be,  for  he  knew  him 
self  the  autocrat  of  his  queer  kingdom.  His  power  was 
much  more  real,  undisputed,  final  than  that  of  any  actual 
monarch,  and  few  there  were  who  could  swagger  as  rea 
sonably. 

His  care  of  Sandra  extended  not  only  to  the  placing  of 
her  bank  account  with  Messrs.  Kahn,  Loew  and  Company, 
but  more  or  less  to  the  management  of  all  her  affairs. 
Sandra,  without  having  noticed  how  it  came  to  pass, 
presently  found  herself  the  tenant  of  a  choice  little  apart 
ment  in  a  choice  section  of  town  which  she  rented  of 
a  Mr.  Isadore  Bettmann;  her  stage-costumes  were  being 
made  by  Madame  Lilli  whose  name  in  earlier  days  had 
been  Sadie  Rheinstrom,  her  physician  was  Dr.  Joseph 
Marcus.  They  were  all  exceedingly  efficient  people. 
One  never  sees  the  Bettmanns,  Rheinstroms  and  Mar 
cuses  of  any  community  in  menial  positions,  so  that 
Sandra's  servants  were  of  other  nationalities,  the  chauffeur, 
for  instance,  a  coloured  man,  her  maid  a  middle-aged  and 
tight-lipped  Scotchwoman,  both  of  them  of  steely  re 
spectability.  Mr.  Levison  had  seen  to  that,  too,  busy 
man  as  he  was.  JSTo  detail  in  regard  to  her  was  too  small 
for  him.  He  even  took  it  upon  him  to  remind  her  per- 


238  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

sistently  that  she  must  have  a  chaperon,  or  a  female  com 
panion  of  some  such  quality  as  the  term  chaperon  con 
notes. 

"  Abroad  they  call  them  dames  de  compagnie,  and 
everybody  —  everybody  like  you,  I  mean  —  has  one,  the 
same  way  everybody  has  one  of  these  fancy  dogs  that  they 
pay  all  kinds  of  money  for.  Say,  that's  an  idea,  by  the 
way !  You  ought  to  have  a  dog ;  why  don't  you  have  a  dog  ? 
Funny  thing  I  never  thought  of  that  before!  I'll  get 
you  a  dog  —  one  of  these  —  now  —  what  d'you  call  'em  ? 
A  Pom  — that's  it!  A  Pom  or  a  Pekel  That's  it! 
The  floor-mop  style.  You  have  your  picture  taken  with 
him.  That's  the  stunt.  You  have  your  picture  taken, 
and  I'll  get  it  into  one  of  the  society-magazines,  the  read- 
ing-from-left-to-right  kind,  you  know,  with  one  of  those 
snappy  little  notices  they  always  fix  up  to  put  under 
neath  it.  I'll  attend  to  that  right  away."  He  got  out  his 
note-book  and  pencil,  and  made  a  memorandum;  then  re 
turned  to  the  first  subject.  "  You  ought  to  have  a 
chaperon.  It's  the  thing  to  do  —  for  your  kind,  I  mean. 
You're  one  of  the  ones  that  can  do  this  —  now  —  social 
stunt,  see?  Some  can't  because  they  —  er  —  well,  they 
can't,"  said  Mr.  Levison,  reticently.  "  Your  mother 
now?  She's  living?  Seems  as  if  I've  heard  you  talk 
about  her.  Don't  you  want  her?  You'd  have  to  pay 
anybody  else  a  salary.  I  should  think  you'd  like  to  have 
your  mother." 

"  Mother  ? "  said  Sandra  dubiously.  A  hundred  ob 
jections,  not  one  of  which  Levison  could  have  understood, 
crowded  into  her  mind  at  once.  "Why,  she  —  I  don't 
believe  she  — " 

"  She  wouldn't  like  it,  hey  ? "  said  Levison ;  and  read 
ing  or  misreading  her  expression,  he  added  quickly  with 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  239 

that  feeling  for  old  age  which  most  nobly  and  beautifully 
characterizes  his  race :  "  You  don't  want  to  put  it  up  to 
her?  Well,  that's  right.  When  they  get  along  in  years, 
they  oughtn't  to  be  worried.  Only  you  may  be  mis 
taken.  I  shouldn't  wonder  if  the  old  lady  would  like  it 
first-rate.  Nothing  to  do  but  ride  around  with  you  in  the 
machine,  and  boss  the  servants  —  they  all  love  that  — 
and  have  everybody  tell  her  what  a  wonder  her  daughter 
is.  I  should  think  it  would  just  suit  her.  But  you  know 
best." 

Sandra  did  indeed  know  best;  Levison's  conception  of 
the  delights  Mrs.  Boardman  might  enjoy  would  have  made 
her  laugh  but  for  its  very  simplicity.  It  would  have 
been  impossible  to  explain  to  him  why  her  mother  would 
be  lost  in  such  an  existence  as  he  pictured;  Levison  had 
never  met  her  type  of  woman  in  his  life.  It  somehow 
pained  Sandra  to  think  that  he  could  not  fail  to  be  im 
pressed  by  Mrs.  Richard's  fine,  fading  beauty,  her  taste, 
her  manners,  her  distinction  all  of  which  he  would  deeply 
admire,  whereas  the  Victorian  grande  dame  herself  would 
inevitably  set  him  down  as  a  common,  commercial,  in  a 
word  impossible.  And  not  her  mother  alone,  but  every 
body  else  at  home.  She  tried  to  explain  their  attitude 
to  herself  by  her  customary  argument ;  they  did  not  know, 
they  did  not  understand :  but  in  the  middle  of  the  formula 
stopped  short  almost  frightened  by  the  discovery  that 
it  was  her  own  attitude,  not  theirs,  that  needed  explana 
tion.  They  were  the  same,  but  who  was  she?  What 
had  become  of  the  original  Alexandra  Boardman?  Years 
of  time,  leagues  of  distance,  seemed  to  separate  her  from 
that  girl.  Sandra  picked  up  a  photograph  of  the  "  Queen 
of  Spades,  the  top-card  in  the  pack  " —  a  phrase  which 
was  bandied  about  town  a  good  deal  that  season  —  and 


240  THE  BOARDMAlSr  FAMILY 

studied  it  a  long  while  and  laid  it  down  at  last  with  a  sigh, 
wondering  if  the  change  in  her  was  really  a  deterioration 
as  Everett  had  all  but  said  outright  in  his  letter. 

The  question  of  a  companion  she  settled  finally  by 
getting  Mary  Schultze,  of  all  people,  to  undertake  that 
office.  Levison,  who  was  at  first  amazed  and  amused,  and 
inclined  to  be  skeptical  as  to  Mary's  qualifications, 
eventually  acknowledged  with  increasing  amazement  and 
amusement  that  no  better  selection  could  have  been  made. 
"  Why,  that  girl  was  just  born  to  tag  somebody  around !  " 
he  declared.  "  Her  being  young  makes  no  difference ; 
she  might  be  twenty-five  or  fifty  or  a  thousand  —  it's  all 
one!  She  isn't  pretty,  she  isn't  homely,  she  isn't  any 
thing.  You  don't  think  of  her  being  around  to  play 
propriety;  you  don't  think  about  her  at  all.  She  just 
seems  to  be  necessary  and  natural,  like  a  shadow.  She 
makes  the  best  effect  I  ever  saw.  It's  —  it's — "  Mr. 
Levison  had  to  resort  to  his  gesticulations  to  express  him 
self.  "My  God!"  said  he.  "It's  atmosphere,  that's 
what  she  is !  Atmosphere !  " 

Mary,  for  her  part,  had  required  considerable  persuad 
ing,  and  left  her  position  in  the  law-office  with  hesitation 
and  misgivings.  She  was  not  so  much  timid  as  cautious, 
feeling  that  a  good,  steady  job  as  hum-drum  as  it  may  be, 
should  not  be  relinquished  for  the  uncertainties  of  life 
with  a  stage-favourite,  no  matter  how  glittering  and  easy 
and  well-paid.  Nobody  could  tell  how  long  it  would  last. 
All  very  fine  just  now,  but  suppose  Miss  Boardman  got 
out  of  health,  or  had  an  accident  so  that  she  couldn't  dance 
any  more,  or  lost  her  hold  on  popular  regard,  or  married 
and  retired?  Then  where  would  Mary  be?  All  very 
fine  too,  to  say  that  she  had  her  stenography  to  fall  back 
on,  but  after  you  have  been  out  of  it  for  a  while,  you  get 
out  of  touch  with  people;  ;they  forget  you;  and  anyhow 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  241 

stenographers'  situations  are  never  easy  to  get  in  New 
York  with  dozens  of  girls  after  every  one  of  them.  On 
the  other  hand,  no  mortal  young  woman,  not  even  Mary, 
could  have  been  indifferent  to  the  allurements  of  the 
prospect.  She  would  be  where  nine-tenths  of  the 
girls  she  knew  —  and  hundreds  of  others,  for  that 
matter  —  would  give  their  eyebrows  to  be,  "  on  the 
inside."  She  would  know  all  about  that  subject  of 
perennial  and  eating  curiosity,  the  private  life  of  a  public 
personage.  She  was  certain  to  meet  or  at  least  to  see 
intimately  all  sorts  of  famous  people,  and  to  travel  to 
all  parts  of  the  world;  already  Mr.  Levison  was  talking 
about  taking  Miss  Boardman  to  Europe,  and  requests  to 
perform  before  small,  chosen  audiences  in  the  most  dis 
tinguished  houses  —  for  fabulous  sums,  of  course  —  were 
said  to  rain  upon  her  as  upon  the  more  notable  actors 
and  opera-singers.  To  Gus's  objection  that  a  companion 
was  in  a  very  ill-defined  and  uncomfortable  position  be 
tween  the  upper  mill-stone  of  her  employer  and  the  nether 
one  of  the  domestics  (these  were  not  the  young  man's 
words,  but  their  substance)  Mary  retorted  spiritedly  that 
as  far  as  that  went,  what  was  she  in  Messrs.  Hogue  and 
Sterrett's  office?  Just  a  clerk.  Would  Mrs.  Hogue  or 
Mrs.  Sterrett  think  of  inviting  her  to  their  houses  ?  They 
never  had,  anyhow.  She  was  just  about  the  same  to  them 
as  a  nursemaid.  Miss  Boardman  knew  that  she  was  a 
lady,  called  her  Mary  and  insisted  on  being  called  Sandra, 
and  was  as  sweet  and  unaffected  as  if  she  were  nobody 
at  all,  or  still  studying  dancing  in  Aunt  Lou's  hall-bed 
room.  That  discussion  clinched  the  business!  Mary 
packed  up  her  few  belongings,  took  her  last  pay-envelope, 
and  said  good-bye  to  the  office;  her  destination  having 
been  noised  abroad,  the  departure  occasioned  uncommon 
excitement,  even  the  heads  of  the  firm  betraying  some 


242  THE  BOARDMA1ST  FAMILY 

interest,  and  Mr.  Sterrett  going  so  far  as  a  jocose  sug 
gestion  that  she  "  chalk  his  hat "  to  a  performance  at  the 
Marionettes  some  night. 

"  You  can  tell  her  —  you  say  her  real  name's  Board- 
man?  Funny!  I  thought  she  was  a  Russian  or  some 
kind  of  foreigner  —  you  tell  her  I've  done  my  best  to 
hoost  her.  I've  been  to  see  her  dance  and  taken  my  wife. 
At  two  dollars  and  a  half  per  it  runs  into  money,  but  I 
like  to  help  a  struggling  young  thing  like  her,  and  I  see 
by  the  paper  she  only  gets  about  twenty-five  hundred  a 
week/'  said  he  with  facetious  solemnity.  "  Orchestra- 
chairs  about  twelve  rows  back  are  where  I  like  to  sit,  but 
a  row  either  way  will  do.  I'm  the  easiest  man  on  earth 
to  satisfy." 

"  I  can  speak  to  Mr.  Levison  about  it,"  said  Mary, 
deliberately  literal.  Mr.  Sterrett  had  always  been  kind 
enough  whenever  he  noticed  her  at  all ;  but  at  the  moment 
he  somehow  personified  the  fate  that  had  heretofore  con 
demned  her  to  unimportance,  and  Mary  could  not  resist 
taking  that  thrust  at  it. 

She  entertained  vague  purposes  of  keeping  a  diary,  and 
years  afterwards  writing  it  over  into  such  a  book  as  she 
sometimes  saw  advertised,  or  in  the  shop-windows.  The 
title  might  be  "  Glimpses  of  a  Great  Artist"  or  "  Behind 
the  Scenes  with  Sandra,"  or  ff  My  Life  with  a  Celebrated 
Dancer."  There  was  a  great  deal  of  money  in  books  like 
that,  Mary  had  heard;  cultured  persons  bought  them,  and 
they  were  talked  about  in  all  the  refined  circles.  Un 
fortunately  being  Behind  the  Scenes  with  Sandra,  and 
Mary's  Life  with  a  Celebrated  Dancer  turned  out,  take  it 
by  and  large,  as  monotonous  and  uneventful  as  can  well 
be  imagined!  The  diary  project  fell  through  from  sheer 
lack  of  material.  Nothing  exciting  happened;  nothing 
whatever  was  allowed  to  happen,  if  possible  to  prevent  it, 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  243 

that  might  disturb  the  ordered  and  narrow  routine  of 
Sandra's  days.  Physical  health,  it  appeared,  was  the 
prime  requisite;  she  must  have  such  and  such  food  pre 
pared  thus  and  thus;  so  much  time  was  parcelled  out  to 
deep,  to  practise,  to  exercise,  to  rest,  to  recreation.  An 
equal  duty  was  the  care  of  her  looks ;  she  must  not  lose  in 
weight,  she  must  not  gain  in  weight ;  a  wrinkle,  a  trouble 
some  tooth,  a  grey  hair  would  be  the  very  climax  and 
vanishing-point  of  tragedy.  Sandra  took  it  all  most 
seriously ;  she  had  always  taken  everything  that  pertained 
to  her  dancing  seriously ;  and  indeed  she  had  good  reason 
to  nowadays,  Mary  thought  simply,  as  soon  as  she  got 
over  her  first  surprise.  Twenty-five  hundred  a  week  was 
serious  enough,  in  all  conscience. 

Perhaps  it  was  not  that  much,  perhaps  it  was  more, 
but  no  one  was  likely  to  find  out  from  Mary.  The  young 
woman  was  naturally  discreet,  and  her  years  in  an  office 
had  developed  a  certain  "  business-sense,"  as  Levison 
pronounced  it.  She  relieved  him,  as  time  went  on  and 
he  found  her  to  be  essentially  reliable,  of  many  of  the 
cares  incident  to  keeping  the  public  away  from  his  star. 
She  escorted  Sandra  to  and  fro,  interviewed  the  inter 
viewers,  made  the  appointments,  read  the  letters.  She 
was  invaluable.  That  Levison  grew  to  have  entire  con 
fidence  in  her  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  one  day  he 
waylaid  her  in  private  and  with  an  embarrassment  which 
sat  oddly  on  him  asked  her  what  was  done  about  —  now 
—  the  soft-heads  and  the  —  er  —  the  fellows  with  the  coin, 
you  know,  that  wrote  notes  and  —  er  —  all  that  ? 

"  You  know  what  I  mean  —  any  girl  that's  been  born 
and  brought  up  in  this  town !  "  he  said  with  a  meaning 
look.  "  Of  course  I  —  I  can't  say  anything  to  her  about 
it.  That's  what  you're  here  for,  anyhow,  to  look  after 
that  end." 


244  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

Mary  told  him  circumstantially  what  was  done  with  all 
the  letters.  There  were  a  great  many  appeals  for  charity 
from  people  both  in  and  out  of  the  profession,  which 
Sandra  almost  always  responded  to  generously  —  too  gen 
erously  by  far,  and  too  indiscriminately,  Mary  bought ;  as 
many  more  came  from  stage-struck  young  girls  and  un 
recognized  geniuses  who  wanted  her  to  get  or  give  them 
an  audience;  and  when  it  came  to  the  promoters,  stock 
brokers,  automobile-dealers,  real-estate  agents,  purveyors 
of  candy,  champagne,  furs,  diamonds  and  so  on,  their  name 
was  legion.  Sandra  "  turned  down  "  most  of  them ;  she 
was  not  without  some  business-sense  too,  it  would  seem  — 

"  Yeah,  I  know,  I  know,"  Levison  interrupted  im 
patiently.  "  But  the  others  —  the  chappies  —  ?  " 

"  I  was  coming  to  those,"  said  Mary,  with  tranquillity. 
"  I  read  all  of  their  letters,  only  I've  got  so  I  just  skip 
through.  They  always  say  about  the  same  thing.  We 
used  to  read  them  together  and  nearly  kill  ourselves  laugh 
ing,  but  Sandra  won't  bother  with  them  now  — " 

"  Oh,  she  won't  hey  ?  "  said  Levison,  distinctly  relieved. 
"  I  thought  women  never  got  tired  of  the  heart-stuff.  I 
thought  you  couldn't  pull  it  too  strong  for  'em.  I  didn't 
know  but  what  she  might  —  now  —  fall  for  it  sometimes. 
What  do  you  do  about  'em,  though  ? " 

"  Why,  throw  'em  away  or  burn  'ein  up  —  she  doesn't 
care.  Of  course,  there're  flowers  and  candy.  I  thought 
it  would  be  nice  to  give  them  around  to  the  chorus,  but  I 
tried  it  once,  and  do  you  know,  Mr.  Levison,  those  girls 
got  just  as  mad !  I  found  out  they  got  quantities  them 
selves.  They  asked  me  if  I  thought  I  was  visiting  the 
Old  Ladies'  Home,  and  things  like  that,"  said  Mary,  smil 
ing  a  little  herself  as  Levison  roared  out  laughing. 
"Well,  I  didn't  know  any  better.  I  hadn't  any  idea 
they'd  be  so  insulted.  Now  I  give  them  to  that  old 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  245 

carpenter  that's  been  here  so  long.  You  know?  The  one 
that  limps  ?  I  think  his  name  is  Grant.  And  then  I  give 
some  to  '  Sunny  Jim '  and  to  Mr.  Potter,  and  — 
oh,  around  to  everybody.  Then  the  people  that  are  all 
the  time  sending  and  asking  if  they  can't  install  some  new 
kind  of  electric  piano-player  or  decorate  her  boudoir,  or 
demonstrate  something,  or  give  her  a  course  of  treatments, 
massage  or  something,  you  know,  without  being  paid  for 
it,  just  for  the  advertisement  —  sometimes  even,  they  offer 
to  pay  her,  if  she'll  recommend  them  —  why,  we  just 
turn  them  down,  too.  Goodness,  if  Sandra  tried  them  all, 
she  wouldn't  have  time  for  anything  else !  "  Mary  said. 
And  here,  whether  she  felt  Mr.  Levison's  attention  to  be 
flagging  and  desired  to  attract  it  again,  or  whether  the  fact 
occurred  to  her  as  casually  as  she  mentioned  it,  she  added : 
"  I  didn't  know  what  to  do  about  the  jewellery  that  time, 
but  Sandra  — " 

"  Hey  ?  Jewellery  ? "  said  Levison,  aroused  at  once 
and  scowling.  "  You  mean  some  fellow  she  knew  sent 
it?" 

"  Oh,  no  —  no,  it  wasn't  anybody  she  knew.  She'd 
never  even  seen  him.  He  wrote  and  said  he  was  crazy 
about  her,  and  if  she'd  wear  it  that  night  he'd  be  in  Box 
A,  and  he'd  know  she'd  meet  him  after  the  performance. 
Imagine!  It  was  a  perfectly  lovely  chain  and  pendant, 
a  sautoir,  you  know  —  awfully  stylish  —  it  came  from 
Tiffany's.  The  pendant  was  purple  enamel  with  a  kind 
of  star  of  pearls  and  diamonds  in  the  middle,  and  then 
there  were  little  kind  of  knobs  of  pearls  and  diamonds 
and  amethysts  every  few  inches  along  the  chain  —  it  was  a 
platinum  chain  —  oh,  it  was  simply  gorgeous!"  said 
Mary,  warming  to  the  recital.  "  We  did  try  it  on,  both 
of  us,"  she  confessed  and  laughed  shamefacedly ;  "  before 
Sandra  sent  it  back." 


246  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

"  Sent  it  back  ?     Wasn't  it  real  ?  "  said  Levison. 

"  I  don't  know.  I  guess  so,  though.  It  looked  real. 
She  wouldn't  hear  of  keeping  it,  let  alone  wear  it  that 
night  — " 

Levison  grunted. 

"  He  was  in  Box  A  sure  enough.  That  is,  there  was 
a  man  in  that  box,  in  a  dress-suit  — " 

"  limp !     What'd  he  look  like  ?     Young  ?  " 

"  Why,  no  —  sort  of  middling.  Sandra  had  one  of  the 
ushers  take  the  box  around  to  him  — " 

"  Didn't  she  write  anything  in  it  ?  "  Levison  interposed 
suspiciously. 

"  ~No.  She  just  wrapped  it  up  in  the  same  paper  it 
came  in,  and  sent  it  out  to  him.  And  he  just  took  it  and 
went  away.  He  didn't  even  stay  to  see  her  dance." 

Levison  grunted  again.  "  Had  a  nerve,  didn't  he  ? " 
said  he  in  accents  highly  uncomplimentary  to  the  un 
known.  And  then  inconsistently :  "  Poor  devil !  "  He 
thought  a  moment,  then  asked  another  question :  "  Was 
that  all  ?  She  hasn't  heard  any  more  of  him  ?  " 

"  No." 

After  further  frowning  meditation,  Levison  said: 
"  Well,  if  any  of  'em  get  too  rank,  just  let  me  know,"  and 
was  moving  away,  when  some  second  thought  halted  him. 
"  You  understand,  Miss  Schultze,  I  —  er  —  I've  got  to 
keep  a  line  —  well  —  there's  a  lot  of  marrying  in  the  stage 
business  —  too  much !  I've  seen  plenty  of  good  perform 
ers  spoiled  by  it  —  or  set  back  anyway.  That's  what's 
on  my  mind,"  he  said,  as  if  feeling  that  so  much  curiosity 
needed  some  explanation;  there  was  a  species  of  uneasy 
challenge  in  his  eye. 

Mary  nodded  readily  with  an  open  countenance,  thereby 
displaying  the  astonishing  powers  of  duplicity  possessed 
by  even  the  most  guileless  of  women.  Miss  Schultze 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  247 

was  transparently  honest  and  not  too  clever ;  nevertheless 
at  that  moment,  whatever  he  chose  to  say  or  even  if  he 
had  kept  silence,  she  guessed  accurately  what  was  on  Mr. 
Levison's  mind! 

If  this  incident  and  others  slight  in  themselves  but 
straws  which  showed  which  way  the  wind  blew  increased 
Mary's  new  and  pleasing  feeling  of  importance  she  was 
not  the  person  to  presume  on  it.  The  great  gratification 
to  be  derived  from  possessing  certain  sorts  of  informa 
tion  is  simply  the  possession,  the  keeping  your  knowledge 
to  yourself.  It  was  none  of  her  business,  Mary  argued 
cannily,  to  tell  Sandra  about  Mr.  Levison;  pretty  soon 
everybody  would  be  telling  her,  anyhow,  or  he  would 
betray  himself.  And,  by  a  similar  line  of  reasoning,  why 
reveal  to  Levison  the  existence  of  Mr.  Thatcher?  So 
her  catalogue  of  letter-writers  did  not  include  the  latter 
gentleman  who,  nevertheless,  was  the  most  persistent  of 
them  all.  "  Only  his  aren't  like  love  letters.  They're 
just  nice  letters,"  Mary  said  to  herself  with  some  dis 
appointment.  Such  faithfulness  and  devotion  as  Sam's 
ought  to  have  been  romantic ;  but  romance  and  sandy  hair, 
a  hundred-and-seventy  pounds  weight,  a  very  solid  bank  ac 
count,  and  —  shall  it  be  hinted  ?  —  some  sense  of  humour, 
cannot  be  associated  together.  Sam  himself  would  have 
made  fun  of  the  notion. 

For  all  that  he  occasionally  performed  some  high-flown 
feat  about  which  there  was  a  flavour  of  romance  —  ro 
mance  strictly  a  la  twentieth  century  —  such,  for  instance, 
as  cabling  from  Madrid  where  he  happened  to  be  on  the 
night  of  Sandra's  debut,  a  long  and  monstrously  expensive 
message  of  congratulation,  jokes  and  nonsense  inter 
mingled.  He  did  not  know  whether  the  event  was  a 
success  or  not,  until  two  weeks  later  when  he  picked  up 
a  Times  at  his  Brussels  hotel;  whereupon  Samuel 


248  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

rushed  out  and  sent  another  cable  equally  boyish  and  ex 
uberant,  and  also  costly.  His  progress  to  Vienna,  Buda- 
Pesth,  Rome,  Cairo,  half  around  the  world  was  indicated 
by  more  cablegrams,  some  of  them  addressed  to  a  Fifth 
Avenue  florist  in  terms  inviting  bankruptcy.  Thus  does 
the  knight  of  today  exhibit  his  chivalry ;  and  on  the  whole 
few  ways  have  been  discovered  that  are  more  convincing. 
Sam  himself  reached  New  York  City  on  the  heels  of  his 
last  communication,  a  wireless  sent  from  mid-ocean.  He 
would  have  gone  tearing  up  from  the  docks  to  Sandra's 
apartment,  but  the  common-sense  which  achieves  kind 
ness  restrained  him.  "  I  expect  she  has  to  be  let  alone  in 
the  daytime  so  she  can  rest  and  take  care  of  herself," 
he  thought,  influenced  as  usual  by  the  deceptive  fragility 
of  her  appearance;  and  a  little  perhaps  by  previous  ex 
periences  with  stars  of  Sandra's  degree.  It  was  strange 
to  think  of  her  amongst  them.  He  went  to  the  office  and 
lunched  with  his  chief,  and  craftily  introducing  her  name, 
heard  her  spoken  of  as  a  Cuban  young  woman  (educated 
in  a  convent  from  which  she  had  escaped  and  made  her 
way  to  New  York  to  avoid  marriage  with  some  half -negro 
sugar-planter  whose  estates  adjoined!)  with  much  private 
amusement;  and  after  luncheon  walked  two  or  three 
squares  out  of  his  way  around  by  the  Theatre  of  the 
Marionettes.  He  spelled  out  "  Little  Bo-Peep  "  from  the 
Tin!  if.  electric-sign  over  the  entrance,  and  below  it 
"  Sandra  "  in  letters  only  a  fraction  smaller.  Levison's 
chic  and  daring  posters  flaunted  on  either  hand;  the 
vestibule  was  lined  with  photographs  of  her  in  forty  dif 
ferent  poses,  as  the  "  Peacock-Girl " ;  as  the  "  Queen  of 
Spades  " ;  as  "  Pierrette  "  in  company  with  a  chalked  and 
be-ruffled  young  man  for  whom  Mr.  Thatcher  instantly 
conceived  a  strong  dislike ;  and  in  a  new  dance  just  added 
to  the  evening's  entertainment,  the  "Falling  Leaf." 


THE  BOAKDMAlSr  FAMILY  249 

They  were  good  pictures;  the  lightness  of  her  movement 
survived  even  in  the  camera,  and  it  was  Sandra's  own 
face,  so  potently  expressive,  that  looked  from  among  the 
scarfs,  plumes,  embroideries,  hedizenments.  Sam  caught 
himself  thinking  not  only  of  old  dancing-school  days  and 
Mr.  Matson's  "  Exhibitions,"  which  was  natural  enough, 
but  of  the  faces  of  other  Boardmans,  on  those  handsome 
old  canvases  which  he  recalled  hanging  on  the  walls  of 
Sandra's  home.  If  it  seemed  strange  to  him,  what  would 
they  have  thought  of  it  ? 


CHAPTER  VIII 

WHEN  Sam  finally  reached  his  lady's  presence,  it 
was  with  a  relief  of  which  he  was  ashamed  that  he 
found  her  unchanged.  He  had  not  seen  her  for  nearly  a 
year,  not  since  long  before  she  wrote  him  the  great  news  of 
the  Rosenberg  engagement;  and  Sam,  with  sundry  figures 
of  stage  women  he  had  known  forcing  themselves  upon  his 
reluctant  memory,  realized  that  in  spite  of  himself  he  had 
feared  some  difference  in  her.  But  it  was  the  same  Sandra 
in  a  little  grey  dress  that  recalled  one  he  had  used  to  ad 
mire,  sitting  —  with  that  same  air  of  thistledown  weight 
lessness  —  among  cushions  on  the  lounge  while  she  talked 
to  him  eagerly  just  as  on  a  night  which  he  remembered  with 
rueful  distinctness  some  three  or  four  years  ago.  To  be 
sure,  the  lounge  was  no  such  shabbily  cozy  affair  as  their 
old  friend  of  the  Boardman  parlour.  Mr.  Sigmond  Mor- 
hardt  of  the  firm  of  Morhardt,  Inc.,  Decorators,  would  have 
veiled  his  eyes  in  horror  before  that  Victorian  relic.  San 
dra's  little  reception-room  was  as  stunningly  stylish  as  the 
apartments  Mr.  Morhardt  created  for  the  stage,  which 
indeed  it  strongly  resembled.  There  were  pale  panelled 
walls,  attenuated  chairs,  consoles  with  chaste  marble  tops, 
mirrors  cut  up  into  panes  like  windows,  drifts  of  shadowy 
gauze  draperies,  embankments  of  satin,  lace  and  chiffon 
pillows  shading  imperceptibly  through  all  the  colours  of  the 
spectrum  to  dead  black.  It  was  a  triumph;  no  greater 
proof  is  needed  than  the  fact  that  it  had  been  photographed 
five  several  times  from  every  angle  for  the  Sunday  sup 
plements,  the  leading  women's  magazines,  and  the  most  no- 

250 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  251 

table  of  those  periodicals  which  Mr.  Levison  not  inaccu 
rately  described  as  "  the  reading-from-left-to-right  kind." 

"  You  have  to  let  them  do  that  sort  of  thing,  you  know," 
Sandra  said  with  a  complete  indifference.  "  It's  part  of 
the  work." 

"  You  don't  have  much  privacy,  I  suppose,"  said  Sam 
sympathetically. 

She  looked  at  him  a  little  surprised.  "  Why  yes,  all  the 
privacy  I  want.  For  instance,  you  didn't  find  it  so  easy  to 
get  at  me,  now  did  you  ?  " 

Sam  had  to  own  with  a  laugh  that  he  did  not.  "  Miss 
Schultze  was  as  wary  as  a  cat.  But  when  she  finally  made 
out  who  it  was  at  the  telephone  she  begged  my  pardon  two 
or  three  times  and  seemed  to  be  a  good  deal  upset -though 
I  kept  telling  her  I  understood  how  it  was.  You'd  be 
hounded  to  death  —  " 

"  Oh,  no,  it's  not  so  bad  as  you  think.  Of  course  they'd 
worry  me ;  but  the  funny  thing  is  if  nobody  took  any  notice 
of  me  in  that  way,  at  all,  I'd  be  ever  so  much  more  worried ! 
The  wardrobe-woman  at  the  Marionettes  used  to  be  quite 
well-known  on  the  stage  —  she  was  leading-lady  with  Mc- 
Cullough,  and  talks  a  lot  about  those  way-back  ones,  Maggy 
Mitchell,  you  know,  and  all  those  real  old-timers  —  and 
she  asked  me  once  how  many  letters  I  got  in  the  morning's 
mail  ?  '  Why,  goodness,  I  haven't  any  idea ! '  I  said. 
'  I've  never  counted  them.'  It's  true,  too.  I'd  never  have 
thought  of  counting  them.  But  what  do  you  think  ?  She 
gave  me  a  funny  kind  of  look,  and  said :  '  When  you  be 
gin  to  count  'em,  dearie,  you'll  know  you're  done ! '  It 
frightened  me,  somehow  — " 

"  Oh,  stuff,  Sandra !  She  talked  that  way  just  because 
she's  a  —  a  croaking  old  has-been  herself !  "  Sam  declared 
hotly.  "  She  probably  never  amounted  to  much  anyhow. 
Not  like  you!  " 


252  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

"  Do  you  really  think  I'm  —  I'm  pretty  good,  Sam  ?  " 
asked  the  girl  with  far  more  anxiety  than  she  had  ever  be 
trayed  after  any  of  the  thousand-and-one  amateur  enter 
tainments  in  which  he  had  seen  her ;  yet  for  technical  fin 
ish,  for  power  and  originality  those  performances  could 
not  compare  with  what  she  was  capable  of  nowadays ! 

"  Sandra,  it's  beautiful !  I've  never  seen  anything  that 
could  touch  it !  " 

"  I'm  always  afraid  you  feel  that  way  because  you  know 
me.  It's  not  fair  to  corner  people  and  ask  them  flat  out, 
anyhow.  They  can't  tell  me  what  they  honestly  think. 
But  that's  another  queer  thing.  I  know  when  I'm  good! 
I  know  it  better  than  anybody  else.  But  I  can't  help  ask 
ing  people  all  the  time !  It's  silly,  but  I  don't  seem  to  be 
able  to  stop  myself." 

"  Well,  maybe  I'm  prejudiced  in  your  favour,  and  then 
again  maybe  I  only  want  to  be  polite  because  I'm  cornered. 
But  they're  turning  'em  away  at  the  box-office.  I  only 
happened  to  get  a  seat  because  some  man  came  in  and  gave 
his  up  at  the  last  minute.  That  shows  that  the  general 
public  thinks  you're  the  worst  ever,  of  course.  And  those 
recalls  the  other  night.  No  use  talking,  it  was  a  frost !  " 
said  Sam,  guessing  correctly  that  this  bit  of  genial  irony 
would  be  more  reassuring  than  any  amount  of  enthusiastic 
protest;  it  sounded  so  sane  and  practical.  He  had  heard 
and  seen  a  good  deal,  professionally,  of  people  in  Sandra's 
position,  and  their  vanity  and  touchiness,  their  dependence 
on  applause  and  their  distrust  of  it,  had  always  struck  him 
as  being  more  pathetic  than  ridiculous  or  irritating.  Con 
sider  the  lives  they  led:  what  self-control  and  self-forget- 
fulness,  what  concentration,  what  tremendous  expenditure 
of  nervous  force  a  single  performance  demanded!  They 
were  so  long  in  arriving,  and  they  had  so  short  a  time,  ten 
years,  twenty  years  at  most;  and  what  cruel  oblivion 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  253 

awaited  them !  Fear  of  it,  fear  of  waning  powers  stalked 
them  even  in  their  prime,  as  it  was  stalking  Sandra  at  this 
very  moment.  She  sat,  her  black  eyes  gazing  wistfully, 
her  fingers  twining  in  and  out  of  the  tassel  at  the  corner  of 
one  of  Mr.  ILorhardt's  opulent  cushions,  one  foot  swinging 

—  a  familiar  attitude  and  movement ;  and  watching  her, 
Sam  felt  the  old  familiar  delighted  surprise  that  anything 
so  uncalculated  could  be  so  charming.     He  checked  a  sigh. 

"  Well,  Sandra,  you  got  there,"  he  said. 

"  Yes,"  said  Sandra.  There  was  no  complacency  in  her 
tone.  Sam,  who  himself  had  also  "  got  there  "  so  far  as 
that  locution  implies  success  in  a  career  was  in  a  sense  pre 
pared  for  her  next  words.  "  It  hasn't  been  all  my  doing, 
though.  I've  had  luck.  Of  course  I've  worked.  And  I 
know  I've  got  it  in  me.  That  part  isn't  luck.  But  —  " 
She  made  a  little  expressive  gesture,  smiling.  "  I  hadn't 
any  sense  when  I  started  out.  I  thought  I  was  going  to  go 
to  the  top  at  one  jump,  right  off!  And  I  thought  that 
once  I  got  to  the  top,  I  wouldn't  have  another  thing  to  do 
simply  sit  back  and  be  —  be  It,  you  know.  Well  now, 
here  I  am  —  and  I  work  harder  than  ever,  and  think  about 
it  a  great  deal  more !  It  isn't  grand  and  easy  and  all  plain 
sailing  at  all  —  anything  but !  " 

Sam  nodded,  "  But  you  like  it  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes!  I'd  rather  do  it  than  anything  on  earth  —  I 
always  have  felt  that  way,  though.  Only  now  I  seem  to 
feel  so  much  more  responsible.  It's  because  I  have  a  name 
and  reputation,  something  to  be  responsible  for,  I  suppose. 
I'm  afraid  all  the  time  that  I'm  not  doing  my  best  —  I'm 
afraid  of  being  satisfied.  You  can't  afford  to  be  satisfied 

—  you  must  keep  on  —  on  —  on!  "  Sandra  said  with  vio 
lence,   her  face  harrowed  momentarily  by  some  feeling 
higher  than  ambition.     Sam  thought  again:  What  lives 
thev  lead ! 


254  THE  BOARDMAIST  FAMILY 

"  Well,  don't  wear  yourself  out,"  he  said ;  and  something 
inadequate  in  this  rejoinder  to  Sandra's  tragic  outburst 
made  them  both  laugh. 

"  That  sounded  like  Mother,"  the  girl  said. 

"  What  do  the  family  think  ?  " 

"  Oh,  they  —  they  are  pleased,  I  believe.  You  know 
how  they  are.  I  suppose  they  would  have  preferred  me  to 
make  a  success  at  something  else.  But  they  —  they  like 
it  well  enough,"  said  Sandra  with  constraint,  worrying 
the  tassel.  "  They  haven't  said  much  —  all  but  Everett, 
that  is.  Everett  has  been  outspoken  about  not  liking  it." 

"  What's  his  objection  ?  " 

"  Well,  he  objects  to  it  all.  He  thinks  it  will  —  well, 
vulgarize  me  —  make  me  common,  you  know." 

Sam  felt  —  indeed,  he  actually  looked  for  a  second  — 
as  if  every  red  hair  on  his  head  were  about  to  blaze  up. 
Hitherto  Everett  had  seemed  to  him  negligible  —  a  good 
enough  sort  of  fellow  —  all  right  probably,  only  not  of 
much  force  —  perhaps  he  had  never  had  a  real  opportu 
nity  to  show  what  was  in  him.  Now,  however,  Sam's  in 
difference  was  suddenly  transmuted  to  angry  contempt. 
He  forgot  that  he  himself  not  such  a  great  while  before  had 
been  troubled  by  doubt  as  to  what  Sandra's  life  and  en 
vironment  might  have  done  to  her!  He  was  righteously 
indignant.  One  must  make  allowances  for  the  elder 
Boardmans,  he  thought;  they  had  different  ideas  which 
they  could  not  be  expected  to  overcome  in  a  hurry.  But 
Everett  —  !  He  of  all  people,  was  in  no  position  to  criti 
cize;  he  ought  to  be  proud  of  being  Sandra's  brother;  he 
ought  to  be  encouraging  her  with  might  and  main,  instead 
of  making  her  unhappy  in  a  way  displaying  a  species  of 
petty  dexterity  that  was  in  itself  unworthy  —  unmanly. 
But  when  Samuel  spoke,  it  was  with  moderation. 

"  I  don't  know  why  Everett  should  feel  anxious.     There 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  255 

are  dancers,  of  course  —  But  there  isn't  any  art  or  calling 
on  earth  that  can't  be  made  vulgar.  It's  a  matter  of  the 
individual.  Xobody  that  knows  you  —  " 

"  You  don't  understand.  Everett  doesn't  mean  that, 
exactly,"  Sandra  interrupted  him.  "  He  knows  I  won't 
do  anything  the  family  would  be  ashamed  of.  He  only 
thinks  I'll  get  to  thinking  too  much  about  money  and  ap 
plause  and  publicity  and  —  and  all  that.  It  does  coarsen 
one;  I'm  a  little  afraid  of  it  myself.  Of  course  Everett 
doesn't  like  the  —  the  surroundings  —  he  has  the  ideas 
that  most  people  have  about  the  stage  —  he  doesn't  realize 
that  I  am  very  isolated,  and  that  my  life  is  all  given  up 
to  one  thing;  he  can't  take  it  in  that  what  I  do  is  work;  it 
doesn't  look  like  work  to  him.  Why,  I  used  to  think  that 
way  myself!  Don't  you  know,  I  was  just  telling  you? 
But  it's  the  money  part  of  it  that  he  hates  the  worst." 

She  spoke  so  earnestly  and  simply  that  Sam  Thatcher 
was  fairly  silenced.  It  came  into  his  mind  that  Everett 
might  actually  be  just  such  a  quixotic  fool  as  Sandra  un 
consciously  described ;  but  Sam  shook  his  head  mentally 
over  that  notion.  There  was  evidence  in  plenty  that  the 
Boardinan  fortunes  which  had  been  visibly  declining  were 
now  on  the  road  to  a  complete  reinstatement.  Whose  do 
ing  was  it  ?  Not  Mr.  Boardmaii's,  certainly ;  the  poor  old 
gentleman  did  what  he  could,  but  there  wasn't  much  work 
left  in  him,  Sam  thought  compassionately.  And  not  Ev 
erett's.  Everett  was  probably  getting  at  the  outside  about 
eighty  dollars  a  month,  and  spending  every  cent  of  it  on 
himself.  Sandra  must  be  the  one;  she  was  the  mainstay 
of  the  family,  just  as  she  had  dreamed  of  being;  and  in 
that  case,  Everett  —  who  hated  money !  —  must  profit  in 
directly,  or  even  directly. 

"  Mr.  Levison  says  people  like  me  ought  not  to  have  any 
family,"  said  Sandra,  with  a  half  smile. 


256  THE  BOAKDMAtf  FAMILY 

"  He  said  something !  "  said  Samuel,  dryly. 

Mr.  Thatcher  and  Mr.  Levison  had  met;  they  kept  on 
meeting,  naturally,  and  in  fact  discovered  a  number  of 
mutual  acquaintances  besides  Sandra,  Sam's  affairs  fre 
quently  bringing  him  into  contact  with  the  theatrical  folk 
amongst  whom  Levison  lived,  moved  and  had  his  being. 
If  the  two  men  did  not  seek  each  other's  society  very  ear 
nestly,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  each  was  a  busy  person, 
whose  friendships  were  already  formed,  so  that,  after  the 
manner  of  New  York  they  had  no  time  for  anything  or 
anybody  extra.  But  Mary  Schultze  found  this  explana 
tion  unconvincing;  according  to  her,  their  lack  of  inter 
est  was  too  studied. 

"They  Tcnow,  both  of  'em!  Each  one  knows  by  the 
way  the  other  looks  at  her.  They  pretend  not  to,  of 
course ;  they  try  to  look  as  if  they  didn't  see  anything,  and 
didn't  care  anyhow,  but  they're  both  on  pins  and  needles 
the  whole  time,"  she  told  Gus. 

In  spite  of  their  having  differed  seriously  over  Mary's 
present  job  at  the  time  she  undertook  it,  neither  of  these 
practical  minded  lovers  had  wavered  from  allegiance  to 
the  other.  The  glittering  masculine  personalities  of  the 
"  Bo-Peep  "  company  had  no  attractions  for  Mary  nor  she 
for  them.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  were  mostly  re 
spectable  married  men  with  children  whom  they  were 
anxious  to  bring  up  and  educate  for  other  careers  than  the 
stage;  and  a  nice  little  farm  somewhere,  not  too  far  from 
Broadway,  with  chickens  and  a  Ford  and  a  house  supplied 
with  modern  conveniences,  summed  up  their  ambitions  in 
almost  every  case.  They  had  snap-shots  of  the  baby  — 
hugging  the  fox-terrior  and  squinting  at  the  sun  —  inside 
their  watch-cases,  innocent  uninteresting  treasures  which 
they  would  show  you  with  the  utmost  pride  and  affection; 
and  then  go  out  to  the  footlights  and  sing  one  of  the  risky 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  257 

songs  or  utter  the  not-too-witty  ambiguities  that  seasoned 
the  piece  with  the  clearest  conscience  in  the  world !  After 
her  first  curiosity  wore  off,  Mary  accepted  them  as  she  had 
accepted  the  men  clerks  in  Messrs.  Hogue  and  Sterrett's  of 
fice  ;  they  did  not  seem  one  whit  more  picturesque.  As  for 
Augustus,  though  he  was  as  impervious  as  Mary  to  the  lure 
of  the  theatre  —  which  is  a  phrase  he  would  have  admired 
but  hesitated  to  use  —  he  presently  began  to  relish  the 
association.  It  made  him  an  object  of  envy  to  the  whole 
of  McChesney's ;  not  every  day  did  you  come  across  some 
one  who  knew  "  Sandra  "  personally,  whose  "  girl "  was 
her  companion,  who  had  seen  her  rehearse  in  private  and 
could  speak  authoritatively  of  what  they  were  going  to  put 
on  next  at  the  Marionettes,  who  went  in  and  out  by  the 
stage-door,  and  behind  the  scenes  habitually,  had  a  nod 
ding  acquaintance  with  the  stars  and  had  even  gone  er 
rands  for  some  of  them,  and  was  called  by  his  last  name 
by  "  Sandra's  "  manager  —  Beckley,  just  like  that !  Gus, 
like  Mary,  enjoyed  his  importance,  even  while  he  had  a 
fair  idea  of  its  worth  or  worthlessness.  Every  celebrity 
or  half-way  celebrity  whose  name  was  carried  on  the  Ma 
rionettes'  program  trailed  a  variegated  collection  of  camp- 
followers,  so  that  Augustus'  position  was  nowise  unique; 
but  he  held  these  others  in  secret  contempt.  In  his  opin 
ion  they  were  mere  hangers-on,  good  for  nothing  else, 
whereas  he  felt  that  he  frequented  the  place  as  might  any 
rich  young  man-about-town  or  literary  fellow  in  search  of 
material ;  it  entertained  him  and  appeased  a  mild  spirit  of 
adventure. 

"  Do  you  think  slie  knows  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  About  Mr.  Thatcher  ?  Goodness,  yes !  He's  asked 
her  over  and  over  again;  it's  been  going  on  for  ever  so 
long.  Don't  you  remember  I  used  to  tell  you  about  it 
when  he  came  to  see  her  that  first  time  at  Aunt  Lou's  ?  I 


258  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

should  think  she'd  know  about  the  other  one,  too,  by  this 
time  —  I  don't  see  how  she  can  help  it.  But  she's  never 
said  anything.  She  wouldn't  anyhow,  I  don't  believe. 
But  honestly  I  wouldn't  be  surprised  if  she'd  never  no 
ticed  !  She's  so  wrapped  up  in  that  dancing,  she  doesn't 
think  about  another  thing !  " 

"  Well,  of  course,  she's  a  great  dancer,"  said  Gus,  with 
the  detachment  of  a  connoisseur.  "  She  has  a  right  to  be 
at  the  top.  All  the  same,  she'd  have  been  a  long  while 
getting  there,  if  it  hadn't  been  for  him.  This  town's  full 
of  good  dancers;  there's  lots  of  luck  about  it.  If  he'd 
taken  a  fancy  to  some  other  girl,  bet  you  by  this  time  he'd 
have  had  her  up  just  as  high,  and  everybody  running  to 
see  her,  and  making  money  by  the  truck-load  just  the  same 
as  this  one." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know  about  that,  Gus,  I  wouldn't  say 
that,"  said  Mary,  disturbed.  "  Mr.  Levison  can't  do  it  all. 
He  couldn't  have  pushed  her  if  she  hadn't  made  good.  Of 
course  she  owes  him  a  lot,  but  she  knows  it.  That's  where 
she's  different  from  some  of  them,  I  guess.  I'm  sometimes 
kind  of  afraid  she  might  — "  Mary  paused  significantly. 
"  Just  on  account  of  being  grateful  to  him  — "  she  fin 
ished  no  less  significantly. 

"  Well,  say  she  did,  it's  a  lot  your  affair,  isn't  it  ?  "  said 
Augustus  ironically.  "  I  don't  know  what  you're  afraid 
about." 

"  Oh,  I  can't  help  it.     He's  a  Jew,  for  one  thing." 

"  Well ! " 

"Why,  Gus  Beckley,  you  know  perfectly  well —  ! 
You're  just  talking  that  way  to  be  contrary,"  said  Mary, 
without  much  severity,  however. 

"  No,  I'm  not,"  Gus  insisted.  "  He  isn't  nearly  as 
Jew-y  as  most  of  them.  And  you  know  —  these  stage-peo 
ple  —  it  seems  as  if  it  didn't  make  much  difference  about 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  259 

them.     You  don't  care  much  \?hat  they  are,  somehow." 

"  You  would  if  it  came  to  marrying  them  yourself, 
though,"  said  Miss  Schultze  with  force. 

"  Maybe  I  would."  And  here  another  question  oc 
curred  to  Mr.  Beckley  which  he  propounded  with  the  grav 
ity  it  deserved.  "  Say,  Mary,  suppose  he  did  ask  her,  and 
suppose  she  turned  him  down.  What's  next,  hey  ?  D'you 
suppose  all  this  keeps  up  ?  "  His  glance  and  gesture  com 
prehended  not  only  the  apartment  but  a  host  of  things  un 
seen  appertaining  to  Sandra  herself,  to  Levison,  to  the 
Marionettes,  even  to  the  outside  world.  The  suggestion 
was  sufficiently  vague,  but  Mary  caught  it. 

"Gracious,  I  don't  know!  I  never  thought  of  that!" 
she  ejaculated. 

After  a  thoughtful  silence,  Gus  said,  wrinkling  his  eyes 
sagely :  "  Well,  you  couldn't  blame  him  if  he  laid  down 
on  it.  After  all  he's  done  —  !  It  would  be  too  much  like 
working  for  nothing  and  getting  nothing  for  it;  and  no 
white  man's  going  to  keep  that  up,  let  alone  a  Jew !  Well, 
of  course,  I  don't  literally  mean  he  isn't  white ;  I  just  mean 
they're  not  the  same  as  ourselves." 

ff  There!  You  see!  You  feel  just  like  everybody  else, 
you  know  you  do !  "  said  Mary  triumphantly. 

Of  the  gossip  that  milled  thus  around  her,  Sandra  was 
quite  unconscious.  Notwithstanding  a  succession  of  ex 
periences  during  the  last  few  years  which  had  insensibly 
shifted  her  outlook,  perhaps  even  worked  some  subtle 
change  in  her  character,  she  still  measured  people  more  or 
less  by  the  Boardman  rule.  In  Mary's  position,  Sandra 
would  have  felt  it  a  kind  of  disloyalty  to  discuss  her  em 
ployer  so  freely.  Likewise  she  never  suspected  that  in 
the  cramped  little  world  of  the  theatre  there  were  people 
who  were  jealous  of  her,  who  sneered  at  her  success,  and 
who  were  not  above  trying  to  impair  her  performance  in 


260  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

small  ways  known  to  the  profession.  Sandra  herself  was 
jealous  of  nobody;  why,  she  would  have  argued  naively, 
should  anybody  be  jealous  of  her  ?  As  for  the  other  mean 
nesses,  being  incapable  of  them,  she  could  scarcely  under 
stand  when  Levison  warned  her  against  them.  He  men 
tioned  a  certain  Miss  Vera  Lloyd,  of  whom  Sandra  had 
never  taken  much  notice,  classing  her  with  the  other  hand 
some,  showy  young  women  with  whom  the  piece  was  plen 
tifully  supplied.  Two  or  three  years  ago,  she  would  have 
laughed  and  wondered  at  their  manners,  their  voices,  their 
taste  in  dress,  and  would  have  written  home  letters  filled 
with  not  very  sympathetic  comment.  But  nowadays 
either  she  was  less  observant  or  less  critical,  or  the  whole 
matter  seemed  of  less  importance. 

"  You  don't  mean  to  say  you  haven't  got  onto  her  ? 
Why,  say,  listen,  that  girl  would  crab  the  whole  act,  if  she 
could.  She  couldn't  have  meant  it?  Nobody'd  do  a 
thing  like  that  ?  "  he  echoed  Sandra's  objection.  "  Maybe 
not !  Maybe  not !  " 

"  But  I  don't  see  —  " 

"  You  don't !  "  said  Levison  epigrammatically.  He 
looked  down  at  her  odd  transparently  pale  face  which  just 
now  wore  a  puzzled  and  distressed  expression  that  made  it 
seem  touchingly  youthful,  even  childish.  "  You  ought 
to  have  a  guardian  appointed.  I'd  like  to  know  what 
you're  going  to  do  when  I'm  not  here." 

"  When  you're  not  here  ?  Mr.  Levison !  You're  not 
going  away  ? "  Sandra  asked  in  an  alarm  which  should 
have  been  comical.  But  Levison  did  not  smile.  He 
moved  nervously,  checked  himself,  and  stood  eyeing  her 
sidelong,  fidgetting  with  his  watch-chain,  which,  by  the 
way,  was  a  massive  and  expensive  creation  with  a  Masonic- 
looking  charm  or  insignia  of  some  sort  dangling  down  from 
it,  twinkling  with  diamonds.  Sandra  thought  the  thing  in 


THE  BOARiniAX  FAMILY  261 

atrocious  taste,  aud  often  wished  there  were  some  tactful 
way  of  suggesting  to  him  not  to  wear  it. 

"  Why,  I  expect  I'll  have  to  go  some  of  these  days. 
Got  to  get  over  to  the  other  side  once  in  every  so  often  — 
to  look  'em  over,  you  know,"  he  said.  "Why?  Think 
you'll  miss  me?  " 

"  Awfully !  I'll  feel  lost.  I  —  I've  gotten  to  relying 
on  you  so.  And  no  wonder !  Look  at  all  you've  done !  " 
said  the  girl,  with  an  honest  and  open  warmth  which 
should  have  effectively  banished,  destroyed,  knocked  on  the 
head  any  sentimental  hopes.  There  was  something 
equally  deadly  in  the  practical  character  of  her  next  words. 
"  I  wouldn't  know  who  to  go  to  to  tell  me  what  to  do.  I'm 
so  used  to  you.  Who  would  you  want  me  to  go  to  in  case 
you  shouldn't  be  here  ?  You  know  ?  About  contracts  and 
all  that  legal  part  ?  I  don't  know  anything." 

Levison  abandoned  the  watch-chain.  "  Don't  go  to  any 
body,"  he  said  gruffly.  "  I'm  your  manager.  If  any 
thing  comes  up,  let  it  wait  till  I  get  back,  or  cable  me." 

"  All  right.  I'm  glad  I  asked  you,  and  I'm  glad  you 
don't  want  to  turn  me  over  to  somebody  else.  I'd  be 
afraid  of  him.  Even  if  he  meant  well  and  was  very  effi 
cient  and  all  that,  it  wouldn't  be  you.  He  wouldn't  have 
your  judgment,  nor  have  seen  so  much  probably.  You've 
been  at  it  so  long  —  " 

"  Oh,  Pop  knows  everything !  "  said  Levison  in  a  scoff 
ing  tone.  "  Say,  how  old  do  you  think  I  am  ?  Thirty- 
seven  !  That's  some  age,  isn't  it  ?  Methuselah  hasn't  got 
anything  on  me,  hey  ?  " 

The  strange  thing  is  that  if  Sandra  had  been  the  Alex 
andra  Boardman  of  other  days,  she  would  long  ere  this 
have  divined  Mr.  Levison's  state  of  mind ;  the  girls  of  her 
class  were  not  more  keenly  on  the  lookout  for  suitors  than 
any  other  girls,  nor  did  they  set  too  high  a  value  on  any 


262  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

man's  attentions,  being  in  the  main  sensible;  but  any  one 
of  them,  including  Sandra  herself  would  have  been  very 
much  alive  to  the  fact  that  some  man  was  in  love  with  her. 
Nowadays  everything  of  the  sort  seemed  to  Sandra  to  be 
long  to  that  previous  existence  that  was  so  featureless,  so 
little  worth  while;  she  had  no  time  to  think  about  love  or 
marriage.  When  her  mother  wrote  her  about  So-and-so's 
engagement,  and  Such-a-one's  "  darling  baby,"  she  had  to 
make  an  effort  to  feel  interested.  In  entering  the  world 
of  art,  she  had  somehow  cut  off  nearly  all  communication 
with  the  other  worlds;  she  would  complain  of  her  isola 
tion  arid  yet  was  at  heart  glad  to  be  isolated.  How  else, 
Sandra  thought  seriously,  could  she  do  her  work  ? 

She  had  a  vague  idea  that  all  this  was  profoundly  self 
ish,  and  salved  her  conscience  by  various  generosities  to 
the  family ;  yet  when  they  thanked  her  —  always  excepting 
Everett  who  continued  to  hold  aloof  —  Sandra  shrank 
painfully.  It  seemed  to  be  all  wrong,  a  reversal  of  the 
natural  order  for  her  father  and  mother  to  be  thanking 
her.  She  was  facing,  without  knowing  it,  the  fact  that  be 
tween  individuals  there  is  no  wholly  kind  way  of  giving, 
and  no  gift  that  does  not  entail  a  certain  humiliation ;  and 
it  bewildered  her  to  find  that  she  was  not  happy  in  doing 
something  from  which  she  had  expected  the  greatest  hap 
piness.  She  could  not  be,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  San 
dra  the  dancer,  and  Sandra  the  daughter  in  her  father's 
house ;  the  discovery  troubled  her,  but  she  did  not  want  to 
resume  her  old  place.  When  they  spoke  affectionately  of 
her  coming  and  resting  at  home,  during  her  vacation,  San 
dra  was  startled  and  ashamed  to  find  that  she  did  not  want 
to  resume  it  even  for  that  brief  period;  she  had  actually 
been  planning  for  a  nook  of  her  own  in  the  country  some 
where  not  too  far  from  Broadway,  exactly  like  all  the  rest 
of  the  Marionettes'  crew ! 


THE  BOAKDMAX  FAMILY  263 

A  Mr.  Simeon  Sturm  whom  Levison  introduced  to  her, 
knew  just  the  thing  she  would  like,  as  it  transpired,  and 
volunteered  to  take  her  out  to  look  at  it  in  his  automobile 
one  Sunday  afternoon.  So  Sandra  and  Mary  and  Levison 
went;  and  the  poodle  with  which  Levison  had  provided 
her  went;  and  a  photographer  whom  it  is  quite  possible 
Levison  had  provided  too,  took  pictures  of  the  party,  get 
ting  out  of  their  machine,  eating  luncheon  at  the  tea-house, 
lounging  among  elaborately  rustic  settings,  putting  the  dog 
through  his  tricks,  and  so  on,  all  against  the  enchanting 
background  of  the  Catskills.  Sandra  was  a  good  deal 
taken  with  the  farm  which  was  a  farm  de  luxe,  with  a  de 
lightful  twenty-room  "  cottage  "  of  English  architecture 
snuggled  cozily  among  trees,  terraces,  and  gardens  formal, 
Japanese,  Puritan,  any  style.  Buildings  of  a  like  homely 
elegance  housed  the  machinery  of  utilities ;  it  was  perfect, 
at  a  towering  price,  which,  however,  Mr.  Sturm  intimated 
might  be  subject  to  revision  —  "  shaded  a  little  "  was  what 
he  really  said.  They  reached  the  city  again  late,  Sandra 
still  undecided. 

After  dinner,  as  she  and  Mary  were  sitting  in  the  grey 
salon,  the  bell  rang  and  Mary  got  up,  saying:  "There's 
Gus,  I  expect,"  and  went  to  open  the  door  herself.  But 
instead  of  Gus  there  stood  on  the  threshold  a  tall  young 
man  who  might,  she  thought,  have  been  the  original  of 
those  fine,  superlatively  good-looking  yet  withal  manly 
young  fellows  whom  Mr.  Charles  Dana  Gibson  sets  forth 
with  so  felicitous  a  pencil.  Mary  gazed  at  him  in  a  flut 
ter  of  admiration.  She  did  not  hear  the  question  he  asked 
—  in  a  voice  as  satisfying  as  his  appearance  —  but  Sandra 
did,  and  rushed  to  the  door  in  a  great  excitement. 

"  Everett !  "  she  cried  out ;  and  with  a  sob  as  he  put  out 
his  arms  to  her :  "  Oh,  Ev !  " 


CHAPTEE  IX 

SANDRA'S   delight   at  seeing  her  brother  was  only 
equalled  by  Everett's  own  astonishment  and  concern 
when  he  finally  made  out  from  her  broken,  distressful  ex 
planations  that  all  this  while  she  had  supposed  him  to  be 
angry  with  her,  or  worse,  disappointed,  even  disgusted. 

"  Why,  good  gracious,  Sandra,  I  had  no  idea  —  !  Of 
course  I  didn't  particularly  like  it  at  first  —  none  of  us 
did,  you  knew  that  all  along.  I  didn't  want  to  stand  in 
your  way,  but  at  the  same  time  I  didn't  want  to  take  the 
responsibility  of  encouraging  you.  The  whole  thing 
seemed  so  —  so  radical  somehow,  so  different  from  any 
thing  we've  ever  done,"  he  said  earnestly.  "  It  sort  of 
hurt  me  to  think  of  your  doing  it,  at  first.  I  couldn't  get 
over  it  —  my  sister  dancing  for  money ;  for  anybody  and 
everybody  to  go  and  stare  at,  that  had  the  price  of  a  ticket. 
You  know  we  weren't  brought  up  to  think  of  that  as  some 
thing  a  girl  like  you  could  do.  Of  course,  times  have 
changed  like  everything.  I  can  see  now  that  that  old  idea 
was  all  rot;  and  Dad  and  Mother  weren't  to  blame  for 
cramming  us  full  of  it.  They  believed  it  themselves  de 
voutly.  But  I  didn't  mean  for  you  ever  to  suspect  — 
well,  I  suppose  I  must  have  showed  how  I  felt  at  the  be 
ginning,  without  knowing  it.  I  must  have  written  some 
thing,  though  I  can't  remember,  I  can't  imagine  what  it 
could  have  been.  What  you've  done  yourself  has  been  to 
go  to  work  and  exaggerate  it  and  brood  over  it,  and  make 
yourself  wretched.  Why,  I  wish  I'd  never  said  a  word 

one  way  or  the  other !     If  I'd  dreamed  how  seriously  you 

264 


THE  BOARDMAX  FAMILY  265 

were  going  to  take  it  —  His  fine  face  was  full  of 

trouble,  affection  and  perplexity. 

"  Well,  you  know,  Ev,  you  only  wrote  that  one  time," 
said  Sandra,  a  little  perplexed  herself  in  the  midst  of 
her  happiness  and  relief.  "  And  I  —  I  thought  —  " 

"  Yes,  I'm  not  very  good  at  writing.  In  fact,  I'm 
shamefully  careless.  I  leave  letters  unanswered  until  the 
statute  of  limitations  lets  me  out,"  said  Everett,  grimac 
ing  comically ;  "  Don't  rub  it  in,  San !  " 

But  indeed  Sandra  had  no  idea  of  rubbing  it  in;  she 
was  only  too  glad  to  have  him  there  with  her,  arid  to  know 
that  the  coldness  of  the  past  year  had  been  nothing  but  her 
own  unhappy  mistake.  She  took  the  blame  with  eager 
ness,  upbraiding  herself  for  not  having  known  better.  Ev 
erett  was  as  much  interested  in  and  as  proud  of  her  as  the 
others ;  was  he  not  her  only  brother,  and  had  he  not  always 
been  as  fond  of  her  and  as  good  to  her  as  any  brother 
could  be  ?  She  recalled  with  increased  pity  girls  whom 
she  had  known  who  were  nothing  like  so  fortunate  in  their 
brothers;  setting  apart  the  fact  that  Everett  had  the  ad 
vantage  of  them  in  brains  and  character,  there  was  no 
comparison  as  far  as  mere  presence  went. 

And  mere  presence  goes  a  good  way!  We  may  talk 
as  wisely  as  we  please  about  appearances  being  deceitful, 
we  may  quote  doughty  old  warnings  to  the  effect  that  hand 
some  is  that  handsome  does  and  beauty  is  but  skin-deep  all 
day  long,  there  is  not  one  of  us  but  recognizes  the  value 
of  a  pleasing  outside;  and  I,  for  one,  would  hate  to  be 
offered  the  choice  between  introducing  to  Society  an 
empty-headed  Adonis,  and  a  disfigured  hunchback  with 
the  wits  of  Solomon !  Everett  was  not  an  Adonis ;  he 
escaped  being  too  good-looking.  And  neither  was  he  emp 
ty-headed  ;  on  the  contrary  he  had  plenty  of  sense  and 
humour;  it  was  no  wonder  Sandra  took  a  simple  pleasure 


266  THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY 

in  going  about  with  and  showing  off  as  her  brother  a  young 
man  so  eminently  presentable.  To  be  sure  she  had  not 
much  time  for  this  diversion ;  but  Everett  with  that  consid 
erate  tact  in  which  they  had  both  been  drilled,  would  not 
for  a  moment  allow  her  mind  to  be  burdened  or  distracted 
by  the  thought  of  him  and  his  entertainment. 

"  Now  look  here,  San,  you  must  go  on  just  as  if  I  were 
not  here,"  he  said  with  a  pleasant  authority.  "  Don't 
bother  your  head  about  me.  Of  course  I  want  to  know 
all  about  the  theatre  and  the  way  you  live  and  everything. 
It  would  all  be  curious  and  interesting,  even  if  you  weren't 
my  sister.  But  I'll  just  prowl  around  on  my  own,  and 
stop,  look  and  listen  whenever  I  feel  like  it.  I'll  find  out  a 
lot  more  that  way,  and  besides  it  somehow  seems  as  if  it 
wouldn't  look  well  for  you  to  have  a  brother  hanging 
around,"  said  the  young  fellow;  he  made  a  face  of  hu 
morous  distaste.  "  You're  f  Sandra '  you  know  — 
you're  somebody  —  and  a  string  of  relatives  —  I  don't 
know  what  makes  the  idea  so  ridiculous,  but  it  is  ridicu 
lous.  People  would  be  wanting  to  know  if  I  was  Mr. 
George  W.  Sandra  and  all  that  sort  of  thing !  " 

They  both  laughed,  Sandra  with  a  certain  inarticulate 
satisfaction ;  Everett's  feeling,  she  thought,  became  him 
so  well.  He  was  not  going  to  be  classed  with  the  shoddy 
pack  of  satellites  that  tagged  about  the  theatre,  and  in 
termittently  besought  influence  —  her's,  Mary's,  any 
body's  —  with  Levison  to  get  a  job.  None  of  that  for 
Everett  Boardman ! 

"  I  can't  help  introducing  you  to  some  of  them,  though 
—  to  Mr.  Levison  anyhow.  You'll  have  to  know  him. 
And  the  rest  —  really,  Ev,  I  want  to  do  it,  just  to  see  their 
faces !  "  she  told  him  with  a  pride  that  shyly  took  cover 
in  the  guise  of  fun.  "  They  have  never  met  or  dreamed 
of  anybody  like  you.  Wait  till  you  see  the  chorus-men ! 


THE  BOARDMAN"  FAMILY  267 

I  don't  know  any  of  them,  but  you  probably  will,  if  you 
stay  long  enough." 

"  Oh,  I  can  stay  as  long  as  I  please,"  said  Everett  easily. 
"  I've  given  up  at  Arnold's."  Her  startled  face  amused 
him.  "What's  the  matter?  Didn't  you  feel  the  earth 
wobble  a  little  the  other  day  ?  That's  when  I  walked  out 
of  the  office." 

"  Why,  I  don't  know  —  I  somehow  took  it  for  granted 
that  you  would  stay  with  Mr.  Arnold  the  rest  of  your  life 

—  like  Dad,  you  know.     He's  always  stuck  to  the  one 
thing,"  said  Sandra.     "  What  are  you  going  to  do  ?  " 

Time  was  when  she  would  have  shrunk  from  so  frank  a 
comment,  and  from  the  direct  question;  but  so  far  had 
Sandra  travelled  from  the  Boardman  paths  that  she  was 
not  even  reminded  of  them  by  the  raised  eyebrows  and  the 
face  of  withheld  disapproval  which  Everett  turned  upon 
her.  "  What  are  you  going  to  do,  Ev  ?  "  she  repeated. 

"  Why,  how  business-like  you've  gotten  to  be !  "  her 
brother  ejaculated.  "  I  don't  know  what  I'm  going  to  do 

—  as  yet."     Perhaps  the  last  two  words  were  a  concession 
to  some  force  in  Sandra  which  he  could  not  evade;  they 
came  out  almost  against  his  will.     Otherwise  Everett  had 
employed   the   tone   of   amiable   tolerance   touched   with 
amusement,  with  which  he  would  have  snubbed  any  other 
over-inquisitive  person ;  and  time  was  too  when  Sandra 
would  have  recognized  that  tone  at  once.     But  now  she 
looked  at  him,  wrinkling  her  forehead  slightly,  not  at  all 
snubbed. 

"  l  As  yet'  ?  "  she  said  after  him.  "  Do  you  mean  you 
have  something  in  view?  You're  going  with  somebodv 
else?" 

"  No,"  said  Everett,  preserving  his  negligent  air.  "  Is 
this  a  catechism,  San  ?  " 

Even  that  hint  fell  without  reaching  her,  like  a  spent 


268  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

arrow.  "  Oh,  you're  looking  around  still,"  Sandra  said, 
practically  as  before.  "  Well,  New  York  is  a  good  place 
—  only  it's  pretty  big  —  "  she  shook  her  head  wisely.  It 
was  on  her  tongue  to  ask  him  what  he  could  do  —  what 
kind  of  office- work?  She  had  never  known  exactly  what 
his  position  with  Mr.  Arnold  was,  except  that  it  had  re 
mained  the  same  all  these  five  years  or  so,  and  now  guessed 
that  if  he  had  been  promoted  he  would  not  have  given  it 
up;  along  with  that,  the  conviction  wormed  itself  into  her 
mind  that  the  kind  of  work  Everett  could  do  was  probably 
about  the  same  kind  of  work  that  Gus  Beckley  did  —  not 
very  exalted,  truly !  Of  course  Everett  was  worth  a  dozen 
Gus  Beckleys,  Sandra  told  herself  hastily;  but  people 
didn't  know  that.  You  had  to  have  some  luck  to  bring  out 
what  was  in  you ;  look  at  her  own  c'ase !  She  resolved  to 
ask  no  more  questions;  Everett's  chance  would  come,  and 
in  the  meanwhile  he  ought  to  take  a  rest,  and  have  a  good 
time,  she  thought  maternally. 

Everett  established  himself,  on  this  tacit  understanding, 
very  willingly.  He  contrived  to  make  no  trouble  in  the 
small  household;  like  any  other  Boardman,  he  knew  the 
ethics  of  hospitality  backwards  and  forwards,  and  could 
have  preached  a  sermon  on  the  whole  duty  of  guests,  facts 
to  which  the  admiration  and  devotion  of  all  the  servants 
bore  eloquent  witness.  He  had  a  room  at  the  apartment 
and  a  key  and  came  and  went  at  his  pleasure  —  privileges 
he  never  abused,  for  Everett  was  a  decent  and  temperate 
man ;  even  if  his  morals  had  been  less  stable,  he  would  have 
held  himself  in  check  in  his  sister's  house.  Noblesse 
oblige!  He  might  have  been  tramping  the  streets  from 
morning  to  night  in  search  of  employment;  but  if  so,  he 
did  not  speak  of  it,  and  appeared  every  day  fresh,  point- 
devise,  and  high-bred  of  air  much  more  like  a  young  prince 
sojourning  incognito  than  a  clerk  out  of  a  job.  Some- 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  269 

times  he  went  with  Sandra  to  the  theatre  where  his  in 
troduction  made  just  the  sensation  she  had  predicted,  to 
her  huge  entertainment.  Everett,  for  his  own  part,  was  a 
good  deal  embarrassed  by  it ;  he  was  not  at  all  vain  of  his 
looks  and  would  have  preferred  to  be  remarked  for  other 
gifts  or  attributes,  as  for  instance,  his  skill  at  billiards,  or 
his  powers  of  repartee.  When  any  of  the  girls  commented 
rapturously  in  words  intended  for  him  to  overhear  on  the 
cut  of  his  profile,  and  the  breadth  of  his  shoulders,  Mr. 
Boardman,  far  from  feeling  flattered,  departed  abruptly 
from  their  neighboiirhood,  in  a  fume.  "  Couple  of  damn 
fools !  "  he  would  ejaculate.  "  Oh,  forgive  me,  Sandra, 
I  couldn't  help  it !  " 

Sandra  only  laughed ;  like  most  women  she  did  not  ob 
ject  to  a  good,  mouth-filling  oath  from  one  of  her  own  man 
kind  once  in  a  while.  "  You  know  looks  arc  a  terribly  im 
portant  matter  to  stage-people,  Ev,"  she  reminded  him. 
"  At  least,  they  think  about  it  and  talk  about  it  more  than 
outsiders.  The  funny  thing  is  that  all  the  while,  one  can 
get  along  perfectly  well  without  any  looks  to  speak  of! 
I'm  not  really  pretty,  but  I  make  up  well,  and  —  " 

"  Well,  no,  you  haven't  got  regular  features,  but  — 
you've  got  something  else,  San,  that's  ever  so  much  better. 
You've  always  had  it.  I  don't  know  what  it  is,  but  it 
makes  the  rest  of  them  look  like  pikers,"  said  her  brother 
with  pride  and  fondness.  "  Here  now,  don't  do  that !  "  he 
expostulated  in  alarm,  seeing  tears  brim  to  her  eyes. 

"  It's  —  it's  because  I  love  to  have  you  pleased  with 
me,"  said  Sandra,  swallowing  hard. 

"  Well,  don't  get  —  er  —  temperamental,  and  all  that, 
you  know,  and  work  up  a  scene !  "  said  Everett,  with 
strong  distaste.  "  That  would  be  stage-y,  sure  enough !  " 

Sandra  choked  herself  off  in  a  panic;  notwithstanding 
his  disavowals,  she  could  not  wholly  rid  her  mind  of  the 


270  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

fear  that  Everett  was  on  the  watch  for  signs  of  deteriora 
tion  in  her.  He  might  have  found  them,  the  girl  thought, 
nervously  aware  of  changes  in  herself,  and  wondering  if 
they  could  possibly  be  changes  for  the  worse.  The  very 
finish  of  Everett's  manners  disturbed  her;  he  infallibly 
said  and  did  the  right  thing,  he  was  always  interested  or 
pretended  to  be,  pleasant,  companionable,  yet  armoured 
impalpably  with  reserves.  Just  so  had  she  herself  been 
when  she  first  essayed  this  life;  what  had  happened  to 
her  ?  She  doubted  if  she  could  take  up  and  practice  again 
all  the  graceful  social  artifices  at  which  she  had  been  so 
adept  once  upon  a  time.  The  distinctions  that  loomed  so 
important  in  those  days  had  all  levelled  down;  she  could 
not  care,  she  could  not  take  the  time,  to  draw  the  line  be 
tween  "  nice  "  and  "  common  "  people  nowadays ;  the 
world  across  the  footlights  was  made  up  of  both,  whose 
money  paid  her  equally,  and  to  whom  she  owed  an  equal 
duty.  And  for  the  world  this  side,  it  was  a  place  where 
who  you  were  and  from  what  sprung  were  of  no  slightest 
interest  to  anybody;  the  single  thing  that  mattered  was 
what  you  could  do.  Sandra  found  that  she  had  insen 
sibly  fallen  into  the  habit  of  thinking  that  that  was  all 
that  mattered  anywhere ;  but  now  Everett  intentionally  or 
not,  in  a  hundred  slight  ways,  by  a  hundred  slight  words, 
reminded  her  of  the  old  standards  disquietingly.  The 
young  women  who  made  eyes  at  him,  the  young  men  most 
of  whom  tried  covertly  and  not  successfully  to  copy  him, 
Miss  Vera  Lloyd  whose  persecutions  and  intrigues  magi 
cally  ceased  immediately  after  his  appearance  behind  the 
Marionettes'  curtain,  Levison  whom  he  had  considerably 
impressed  —  what  would  they  have  thought  if  they  had 
known  what  Everett  said  when  their  backs  were  safely 
turned,  how  he  laughed  at  and  parodied  them,  what  a  com- 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  271 

edy  he  made  of  neatly  avoiding  being  seen  with  them,  or 
allowing  them  to  become,  as  he  said,  "  too  friendly  "  ? 

Aforetime  Sandra  had  said  and  done  the  same  things  in 
the  same  spirit ;  the  society  to  which  the  Boardman  young 
people  were  born  saw  no  harm  in  this  particular  species 
of  two-facedness.  There,  it  was  understood  that  nobody 
could  be  at  one  and  the  same  time  sincere  and  polite; 
to  take  others  literally  or  at  their  surface  value  was  to 
be  calamitously  unsophisticated.  Everybody  was  on  his 
guard,  and  the  rules  of  the  game  were  somewhat  better 
known  and,  shocking  to  admit,  much  more  consistently  ob 
served  than  the  Ten  Commandments.  But  the  population 
of  the  Marionettes  exhibited  a  singular  ignorance  of  all 
this  finesse;  they  were  direct  and  simple  as  children;  class 
traditions,  class  standards,  class  feeling  did  not  exist  for 
them ;  it  was  an  atmosphere  wherein  every  tub  stood  on 
its  own  bottom.  They  were  not  dull  and  the  youngest  of 
them  was  a  veteran  beside  Everett  Boardman  when  it 
came  to  practical  knowledge  of  the  world ;  yet,  compared 
with  him,  they  gave  an  effect  of  unworldliness.  For  one 
item,  it  was  not  possible  to  imagine  a  society  in  which 
Everett  would  not  have  appeared  becomingly,  to  which  he 
could  not  have  accommodated  himself;  whereas,  in  num 
berless  circles,  high  and  low  alike,  the  poor  Marionettes 
would  have  been  a  terrific  misfit.  The  fact  was  part  and 
parcel  of  an  advantage  he  had  over  them  which  Sandra, 
unreasonably  enough,  found  a  little  unfair. 

The  season  closed.  After  a  run  which  had  exceeded  in 
length  Levison's  original  calculation  by  half  again  the  fig 
ure,  continuing  through  the  devastating  heat  of  one  entire 
summer  and  well  into  the  next.  "  Little  Bo-Peep  "  was  to 
take  the  road  in  the  autumn,  being  succeeded  on  the  boards 
of  the  Marionettes  by  "  Hey-Diddle-Diddle  "  another  of 


272  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

the  miscellaneous  collections  of  young  women,  low  come 
dians,  scenery,  songs,  dances,  rapid-fire  dialogues  and  deaf 
ening  orchestral  effects  for  which  that  place  of  sterling 
entertainment  was  noted.  The  new  piece,  however,  would 
riot  begin  its  career  until  October,  a  date  to  which  the 
Rosenbergs  religiously  or  superstitiously  adhered  for  all 
their  openings;  everybody  would  be  busy  with  rehearsals 
for  weeks  beforehand,  but  in  the  meantime  the  Marionettes 
thankfully  rested,  at  their  homes  if  they  happened  to  have 
homes,  at  the  camps  and  resorts  favoured  by  their  kind,  at 
those  farms  they  talked  about  so  much,  and  Sandra  herself 
at  the  Catskill  retreat  which  she  had  leased.  Her  part  in 
the  forthcoming  production  would  put  the  Queen  of 
Spades,  the  top  card  in  the  pack  completely  in  the  shade, 
Levison  enthusiastically  believed  —  not  that  it  gave  op 
portunities  for  the  display  of  histrionic  talent;  the  last 
thing  required  of  any  actor,  male  or  female,  on  the  Mar 
ionettes'  staff  was  that  he  or  she  should  be  able  to  act ! 
"  They  can  go  to  these  Ibsen-Shaw-Maeterlirick-Irish-Gse- 
lic  joints  if  they  want  the  high-brow  stuff,"  Levison  ob 
served  without  animus.  "  Say,  listen !  The  average 
theatre  crowd  —  and  that  means  the  visiting  crowd  that 
comes  to  New  York  from  all  over  the  country,  they're  the 
ones  that  fill  the  theatres  —  the  average  crowd  wants  to 
be  amused.  They  want  to  hear  the  latest  slang,  and  see 
the  clothes,  and  get  a  line  on  the  last  song-hit  or  dance- 
step,  so  they  can  go  back  home  and  swell  around  and  tell 
the  folks  who's  who  on  Broadway.  What  gets  'em  is  a 
good  peppy  show,  the  kind  we  put  on,  with  some  fellow 
that  can  make  'em  laugh,  and  a  chorus  of  peaches  and  a 
special  attraction  like  —  like  '  Sandra/  "  he  brought  out 
with  an  awkwardly  humorous  glance.  "  Well,  that's  the 
public  we  cater  to,  and  I  guess  we  do  it  all  right,  or  they 
wouldn't  keep  on  coming.  And  say,  listen,  maybe  we 


THE  BOAR  MI  AX  FAMILY  273 

don't  earn  our  money,  huh  ?  Anybody  that  thinks  that 
kind  of  a  show  is  the  easiest  to  get  up,  fools  himself  badly. 
We  spent  twenty-five  thousand  on  '  Bo-Peep '  before 
the  curtain  went  up.  These  lads  that  are  elevating 
the  stage  with  plays  that  if  they  were  printed  so  the  au 
thorities  could  get  on  to  'em,  they  wouldn't  let  'em  through 
the  mails  —  all  they've  got  to  do  is  to  hire  some  other  ele 
vator,  only  the  artist  kind,  to  paint  a  back-drop  that  looks 
like  a  view  of  the  coal-cellar  at  midnight  when  you  go 
down  without  a  light,  set  a  couple  of  chairs  in  front  of  it, 
and  there  you  are !  It's  all  part  of  the  —  the  dope,  you 
know.  I  could  do  it  if  I  wanted  to ;  it's  easy  enough  when 
you  know  how,  to  flimflam  the  culture  crowd.  But  Fd 
rather  stick  in  the  straight  show  business  where  you  give 
the  public  their  money's  worth." 

"  I  hope  they'll  keep  on  liking  me,"  said  Sandra. 

"  They're  all  right  till  they  get  tired.  Nobody  can 
hold  'em  after  they  get  tired,"  Levison  said  with  a  sort  of 
circuitous  frankness.  "  It  won't  be  your  —  I  mean  it 
won't  be  anybody's  fault  when  that  happens.  They  just 
get  tired.  That's  why  so  many  shows  are  taken  off  when  it 
looks  like  they're  so  popular  they  could  go  on  forever;  the 
management  gets  wise  to  that  tired  feeling  coming  along. 
It's  all  part  of  a  system;  you  have  to  have  system  in  this 
business  same  as  in  any  other  business.  Rosenberg  Broth 
ers  always  send  'em  on  tour  for  one  more  season,  and  that 
ends  'em.  Enough's  a  plenty.  Of  course,  lots  of  old  stuff 
is  all  the  time  being  overhauled  and  named  something  else, 
and  brought  up-to-date  and  tried  out  just  as  if  it  was  some 
thing  new,  and  like  as  not,  the  second  time  or  so,  it  gets 
over !  Take  (  A  Cereal  Story '  for  instance,  that  they 
put  on  up  at  the  Acme  last  winter.  Swinnerton  had  that 
first  at  the  Fifty-ninth  Street  house,  and  they  called  it 
'  Mush-and-Milk ?  and  it  was  a  first-class  fizzle.  Then 


274  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

Swinny  got  it  fixed  up  a  little,  and  changed  the  name  to 
*  Breakfast  for  Two '  and  went  over  to  the  Shakespeare 
with  it,  and  scored  another  fizzle.  Then  he  hired  Danny 
Fitzgerald ;  and  this  guy  that  nobody  ever  heard  of  before, 
Milton  Legree,  turns  up  with  this  song,  '  Register  Love/ 
and  they  call  the  show  '  A  Cereal  Story '  and  move  up  to 
the  Acme,  and  Fitz  sings  the  song,  and  the  next  night 
they're  turning  'em  away !  That's  how  it  goes.  The  pub 
lic  don't  notice.  Anyhow  I  sometimes  think  people  like 
to  laugh  at  the  same  old  jokes,  and  cry  in  the  same  old 
places  they  always  have,  only  you  mustn't  let  'em  know 
it's  old.  And  you  have  to  vary  your  stellar  attraction  on 
that  account  —  " 

"  I  won't  be  new  next  year  —  " 

"  What  makes  you  think  you've  got  to  do  the  worry 
ing  ? "  interrupted  Sandra's  manager  jocosely.  "  Let 
Max  do  it !  That's  what  I'm  for  and  I  don't  look  as  if  I 
was  losing  sleep  over  it,  now  do  I  ?  You'll  have  to  have 
new  costumes  —  we'll  feature  that  big.  Better  get  ?em 
from  this  —  now  —  what's  her  name  ?  —  Louise.  And 
of  course  new  dances.  Say,  listen,  that  makes  me  think 
of  something.  That  '  Falling  Leaf,'  you  know  —  "  he 
paused.  "  You  can't  guess  right  every  time." 

Sandra  understood  him.  The  "  Falling  Leaf  "  dance 
had  not  been  a  pronounced  success.  It  was  designed  to 
exhibit  her  versatility,  and  for  a  foil,  as  it  were,  to  the 
fiery,  or  coquettish,  or  sentimental,  or  merely  "  cute  "  roles 
—  so  to  call  them  —  wherein  she  achieved  such  triumphs. 
The  title  conveyed  a  sombre  suggestion  which  Sandra,  with 
her  conscientious  artistry  had  striven  to  illustrate,  as  it 
turned  out,  only  too  well.  In  sad-coloured  chiffons  with 
a  wreath  of  sere  maple,  she  was  the  ghost  of  summer,  of  de 
parted  youth,  of  dead  hopes,  drifting  or  whirling  about  the 
stage  with  a  mad  and  heart-breaking  futility.  Marion- 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  275 

ettes  audiences,  of  whom  Levison's  estimate  was  fairly  cor 
rect,  while  they  did  not  quite  know  what  to  make  of  the 
spectacle,  beheld  it  with  a  vague  discomfort  which  they 
vaguely  resented.  They  applauded  but  with  a  hint  of  re 
serve  which  the  well-skilled  faculties  of  the  Rosenbergs 
speedily  detected.  The  "  Falling  Leaf "  vanished  from 
the  program  overnight;  Sandra's  next  novelty  was  "  Pow 
der-Puff  "  in  which  she  was  brought  on  in  a  pink  and  gilt 
box,  and  emerging  swathed  Huffily  in  white  with  bobbing 
balls  of  eiderdown,  executed  any  number  of  dainty  pirou 
ettes  and  poses  in  the  style  to  which  her  followers  were  ac 
customed,  which  they  associated  with  her,  this  time  win 
ning  an  unstinted,  a  whole-souled  expression  of  approval. 
The  episode  should  have  been  a  valuable  lesson. 

"  I  know.  They  didn't  like  it,"  she  assented  at  once ; 
but  added  wistfully,  "  I  liked  it,  though,  I  can't  see  what 
was  the  matter  with  it.  Do  I  have  to  give  up  that  kind  of 
dance  altogether  ?  Why  ?  Why  can't  I  - 

Levison  wagged  his  head.  "  Too  bad !  "  said  he,  convey 
ing  his  adverse  judgment  indirectly,  yet  conclusively  as 
before.  "  I  liked  the  '  Falling  Leaf  '  too  —  I  thought  it 
was  beautiful.  But  what's  the  use?  You've  got  to  give 
the  public  what  it  wants.  Now  the  i  Powder-Puff ' 
dance  —  " 

Sandra  interrupted  with  a  little  impatient  gesture.  "  Oh, 
that!" 

"  You  thought  it  was  nothing  but  fluff,  hey  ?  "  said  Lev 
ison.  "  All  the  same  it  caught  'em  and  the  other  didn't. 
What's  the  use  ?  I  expect  Danny  Fitzgerald  would  rather 
sing  '  Pagliacci '  than  '  Register  Love/  and  I  expect  he 
could  sing  it  all  right,  too.  But  he  sticks  to  '  Register 
Love/  and  shows  his  business-head.  I  don't  believe  in 
knocking  the  poor  old  public  for  not  having  good  taste. 
That  doesn't  get  you  anything.  It  doesn't  get  you  any- 


276  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

thing  like  this  anyhow/'  he  finished,  indicating  their  sur 
roundings  with  a  sagacious  smile. 

They  were  sitting  on  the  terrace  of  Sandra's  cottage, 
whose  un-cottage-like  facade  provided  a  back-drop  almost 
as  theatrically  conceived  as  those  before  which  she  was 
wont  to  figure  nightly.  Ivy  wrapped  the  chimnies,  a  case 
ment  opened  out  here  and  there,  a  delightful  wrought-iron 
weather-vane  stood  from  the  comb  of  the  steep-pitched  roof 
against  the  clear,  hot  sky.  From  the  balustrade  in  front 
of  them  flights  of  steps  dropped  to  a  lower  level  whence 
arose  all  sorts  of  garden  fragrances.  There  was  a  distant 
view  of  a  mountain  with  a  flat  shining  loop  of  water  about 
its  base.  In  the  middle  of  the  scene,  the  big  green-and- 
white  striped  umbrella  shading  them,  the  table  and  loung- 
ing-chairs  and  green-and- white  striped  cushions  appeared 
with  a  deliberately  count ryfied  smartness  not  incongru 
ous. 

"  Some  place !  "  said  Levison.  "  Hello,  who  is  that 
down  there  coming  along  behind  that  row  of  what  d'ye 
call  'ems?  Those  tall  thick  green  bushes,  I  mean.  See 
'em?" 

"  Everett  and  Mary,  probably.  They  must  be  coming 
back  from  the  postoffice;  that's  where  they  said  they  were 
going.  The  green  things  are  supposed  to  be  a  screen- 
planting  of  cypress,  Mr.  Levison." 

"  Cypress,  hey  ?  It  looks  nice,  but  I  don't  believe  it 
grew  there  naturally.  Some  landscape  artist  laid  the  place 
out.  Those  fellows  are  pretty  high-priced,  and  I  guess 
they  get  a  rake-off  on  all  these  fancy,  imported  shrubs  and 
things  from  the  nursery-man  they  give  the  order  to.  Well, 
a  place  like  this  is  bound  to  run  into  money,"  said  Levison 
philosophically.  "  There  they  come  again !  Yes,  that's 
your  brother.  It's  kind  of  funny  to  see  him  with  little 
Schultze.  Like  —  like  —  "  he  searched  his  mind  for  a 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  277 

simile.  "Like  a  Ford  and  a  Packard  alongside!  He 
seems  to  like  her  pretty  well,  though." 

"  Does  he  ? "  said  Sandra,  rather  startled  but  by  the 
other's  manner  more  than  his  words.  "  I  hadn't  noticed." 

"  Well,  put  it  that  she  seems  to  like  him  pretty  well, 
then,"  said  Levison,  grinning  significantly. 

"  Yes,  but  Mary's  engaged." 

"  Sure  enough,  sure  enough !  And  of  course  she 
wouldn't  throw  friend  Beckley  down  for  a  prince  like  your 
brother,  if  she  got  the  chance.  No  girl  was  ever  known  to 
do  a  thing  like  that,"  retorted  Levison.  "  Never  mind,  I 
don't  see  him  tieing  himself  up  with  anybody  —  getting 
married  runs  into  money,  too.  And  he  won't  have  more 
than  enough  even  if  I  land  him  a  job  with  Rosenbergs  —  " 

Her  face  of  stark  astonishment  and  half  articulated  ex 
clamation  arrested  him.  "  Why,  didn't  you  know  ? 
Why,  I  thought  —  I  took  it  for  granted  you  —  well,  I 
knew  you  wouldn't  put  him  up  to  asking  me  exactly  —  but 
still  I  thought  you  might  — "  he  stammered.  "  It 
wouldn't  have  been  anything  out-of-the-way  if  you  had. 
I  wouldn't  have  thought  anything  of  it.  I  —  I'd  like  to 
—  to  —  to  do  anything  you  wanted  —  "  and  here  Mr.  Lev 
ison  abandoned  the  attempt  at  explanation,  probably  find 
ing  himself  floundering  into  deeper  water  than  ever. 
"  Why,  yes,  he's  been  after  me  ever  since  he  got  here  — 
ever  since  you  introduced  him.  I  thought  you  knew  all 
along!" 

Sandra  sat  dumbfounded.  Why  Everett  should  not 
have  taken  her  into  his  confidence  fully  and  freely  at  the 
beginning  was  incomprehensible  to  her;  but  not  more  in 
comprehensible  than  that  he  should  have  thrown  up  his 
position  at  home  and  come  to  New  York  with  such  a  proj 
ect.  After  all  that  he  had  said  —  all  that  he  was  still 
saying! 


278  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

"  I  got  it  into  my  head  you'd  written  him  to  come,"  said 
Levison,  wondering  to  see  her  so  disturbed  over  what  was 
to  him  an  everyday  occurrence,  as  she  knew.  If  he  had  to 
count  up  all  the  people  who  approached  him  to  get  places 
for  their  relatives,  he  would  need  as  many  volumes  as  the 
Congressional  Record,  was  his  private  comment.  "  It 
would  have  been  all  right  if  you  had,"  he  assured  her 
again. 

"  I  didn't  write,"  said  Sandra.  "  What  —  what  sort  of 
a  position  does  he  want  ?  " 

Levison  stared.  "What  sort  of  a —  Why,  with  some 
show,  of  course.  With  the  Rosenbergs,  or  anybody.  He 
knows  I  wouldn't  have  much  pull  if  he  was  after  a  seat  on 
the  stock  exchange,"  he  said  with  uneasy  jocularity.  She 
did  not  smile,  however ;  and  whatever  else  was  wrong,  Lev 
ison  was  seized  with  the  fear  that  he  himself  had  offended. 
Truly  he  had  done  nothing;  but  she  was  so  different. 
"  Say,  listen !  I  know  you  wouldn't  ask  any  favours,  not 
for  yourself  nor  your  brother,  nor  anybody.  I  know 
you're  not  that  kind,"  he  said  humbly.  "  I  didn't  mean 
—  I  just  thought  maybe  —  " 

"  What  does  Everett  want  to  do  ?  "  Sandra  asked. 

"  Why  —  oh,  well,  anything.  He  can  dance  some,  and 
sing,  and  play  the  piano  a  little,  can't  he  ?  He  told  me  he 
could.  And  he's  right  there  on  the  looks.  He  could  do 
all  right,  I  guess.  Say,  listen,  don't  get  yourself  all 
worked  up.  It's  going  to  be  all  right.  I'll  get  him  some 
thing." 

He  spoke  with  real  kindness.  Everett  could  mimic  his 
"  Say,  listen !  "  his  way  of  flourishing  his  hands  perfectly. 
ISTose,  moustache,  jewellery,  ostentatious  cane,  top-hat,  fur- 
lined  overcoat,  loud  laughter,  cheap  slang,  commercialized 
tastes  —  there  was  not  a  thing  about  him,  inside  or  out, 
that  Everett  had  not  found  material  for  entertainment,  for 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  279 

hilarious  contempt.  Sandra  herself  had  joined  in  the 
laughter,  a  recollection  peculiarly  hateful  at  this  moment. 

"  You  are  very  kind,  I  —  I  want  to  thank  you  very 
much/7  she  got  out  with  a  miserable  stiffness.  There  was 
really  nothing  to  say.  Levison  eyed  her  doubtfully;  but 
the  next  instant,  Everett  and  Mary,  mounting  the  steps, 
put  an  end  to  this  scene. 

They  had  the  day's  paper,  which,  for  at  once,  as  Ever 
ett  reported  gaily,  actually  contained  some  news.  An  Aus 
trian  grandduke  or  crown  prince  or  somebody  and  his  wife 
had  been  assassinated  at  one  of  those  places  with  a  jaw- 
breaking  name,  those  Balkan  places  where  they  were  al 
ways  having  trouble.  Some  anarchist  threw  a  bomb  into 
their  automobile  as  they  were  riding  along  the  street. 
"He  didn't  like  the  idea  of  having  these  royalties  from 
outside  coming  to  run  the  country,  so  in  his  freedom-lov 
ing,  high-spirited  way,  he  blew  them  up.  That's  what  you 
might  call  practical  patriotism.  Fine  fellow!  Fine 
race !  "  said  Everett,  smilingly  satirical,  lighting  a  ciga 
rette. 


CHAPTER  X 

BY  the  time  Sandra  had  a  chance  to  speak  to  her  brother 
in  private,  Mr.  Levison's  late  communication  had 
somewhat  dwindled  in  importance;  so  that  she  was  meas 
urably  satisfied  by  Everett's  explanation  that  he  had  kept 
silence  expressly  to  avoid  worrying  her  —  it  was  all  in 
the  air  anyhow  —  he  could  not  tell  how  he  would  suit  the 
stage  or  how  the  stage  would  suit  him  —  he  knew  very  well 
he  was  no  such  born  dancer  as  herself,  for  instance  —  he 
had  not  the  makings  of  a  star  —  but  Levison  and  one  or 
two  others  had  been  rather  encouraging,  and  he  was  going 
to  make  a  stab  at  it  —  no  harm  in  trying.  Meanwhile  he 
was  determined,  first  of  all,  that  she  should  not  wear  her 
self  to  a  frazzle  over  him,  and  secondly,  that  nobody  should 
have  any  ground  for  saying  that  he  had  gotten  a  start 
through  being  his  sister's  brother.  Everett  made  this  last 
declaration  with  a  smiling  vehemence,  which  masked,  San 
dra  thought,  a  very  serious  pride  and  resolution.  She 
could  scarcely  find  fault  with  him  for  conduct  which  was, 
after  all,  so  "  Boardman-ish,"  the  girl  told  herself.  Ev 
erett,  for  all  he  had  the  advantage  of  being  a  man,  was 
just  as  impractical  and  just  as  visionary  as  she  had  been 
at  the  outset ;  and  he  was  as  thoroughly  steeped  in  the  fam 
ily  ideas,  about  which,  take  them  for  all  in  all,  she  could 
still  perceive  a  kind  of  wrong-headed  dignity.  The  trou 
ble  was  they  were  calamitously  out  of  date  now  and  never 
should  have  been  taken  literally  at  any  time.  She  had 
ceased  to  consider  them,  and  Everett  would  too,  presently. 

"  I  know  —  I  understand,"  she  said  warmly.     "  The 

280 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  281 

only  thing,  Ev,  is  that  after  a  while  you'll  find  out  it 
doesn't  make  a  bit  of  difference  to  anybody  how  you  get 
a  start.  Suppose  some  manager  had  given  you  a  try-out 
just  because  you  told  him  you  were  my  brother.  Nobody 
would  have  cared.  You  might  just  as  well  have  come  to 
me  in  the  beginning,  and  let  me  help  you.  All  this  time  I 
thought  you  were  looking  around  for  a  position  in  a  bank 
or  something  like  that  —  the  same  sort  of  thing  you  had 
had  at  home.  You  could  have  been  working  —  taking  les 
sons  and  practising  the  way  I  did  —  " 

"  Oh,  I  don't  think  that  would  do  me  much  good.  I 
don't  expect  to  be  a  star,  I  tell  you.  Anyway  I  can't  very 
well  take  lessons,"  said  Everett,  reticently. 

Sandra  recognized  with  a  dart  of  impatience  the  Board- 
man  convention  which  withheld  him  from  telling  her  in 
plain  words  that  he  had  not  the  money.  "  That  will  be 
all  right.  I'll  see  de  Voyna,  and  arrange  with  him  to 
give  you  some  drill,"  she  said;  and  sure  enough,  Ev 
erett  acquiesced  without  impolite  curiosity  as  to  how  she 
would  "  arrange." 

"  It  sounds  so  odd  to  hear  you  call  people  by  their  last 
names  that  way  — '  de  Voyna/  "  was  his  only  comment. 
"  That  seems  to  be  one  of  the  Marionettes'  little  ways, 
though.  Nobody  ever  troubles  about  '  Miss  '  or  '  Mister.' 
It's  delightfully  informal." 

"  I  suppose  I've  picked  it  up  from  the  others,"  said  San 
dra,  a  little  taken  aback.  "  I  didn't  know  I  was  doing  it." 

"  Well,  you  ought  to  be  careful,  San.  It's  easy  to  get 
into  common  ways  when  you  have  to  be  so  much  with  these 
people." 

There  was  a  moment  of  silence  while  Sandra  looked  at 
him,  shrinking  before  the  first  rays  of  an  unwelcome  en 
lightenment.  She  would  have  offered  herself  her  usual 
excuses  for  Everett,  but  realized  reluctantly  that  they  were 


282  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

inadequate ;  for  once,  the  Boardnaan  code  could  not  be  held 
responsible.  "  Everett,"  she  said  at  length ;  "  you  know  I 
—  I  don't  think  you  ought  to  talk  in  that  way  —  in  that 
tone,  I  mean  —  about  '  these  people,'  as  if  —  as  if  they 
were  beneath  us.  I  don't  think  you  ought  to  feel  that 
way.  Perhaps  they  weren't  brought  up  the  same  way  we 
were,  but  that  doesn't  make  them  an  inferior  order  of  be 
ings.  We're  all  on  the  same  level  here,  anyhow ;  if  there's 
any  difference,  it's  in  their  favour.  Any  one  of  '  these 
people '  can  do  the  very  thing  you  want  to  do,  and  do  it 
better.  If  you  are  going  to  —  to  cast  in  your  lot  with 
them,  you  ought  —  you  ought  not  —  " 

Everett's  whimsically  arched  eyebrows  silenced  her. 
"  '  Inferior  order  of  beings  '  "  — "  '  Cast  in  our  lot  with 
them!'  '  he  quoted.  "Wheel  Isn't  that  the  elegant 
language,  though  ?  But  you  didn't  need  to  give  me  such  a 
blast,  San.  You  don't  suppose  I'm  going  to  let  them  see 
what  I  think  of  them?  What  put  that  into  your  head? 
I've  always  been  very  careful  not  to  hurt  their  feelings, 
you  know  that.  I've  no  doubt  they're  all  very  good,  kind, 
decent  people  if  they  do  have  erroneous  ideas  about  dress 
and  table-manners,  and  how  to  behave  in  a  public  place, 
and  a  few  other  little  things  on  the  same  order,"  Everett 
began  to  laugh  in  his  good-humoured,  tolerant,  disarming 
way.  "  Come  now,  Sandra,  you  know  yourself  they're 
impossible  —  as  companions  —  friends  —  socially  —  you 
know  what  I  mean." 

Sandra  did  indeed  know  what  he  meant  and  a  sense  of 
futility  invaded  her.  Everything  her  brother  said  was 
reasonable,  and  his  exposition  of  his  principles  was  just; 
he  would  have  thought  it  boorish  to  be  unkind  in  so  cheap 
and  stupid  a  fashion  as  he  had  outlined.  He  would  no 
more  hurt  their  feelings  outright  than  he  would  take  a 
bludgeon  to  their  bodies.  There  were  other  ways  of 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  283 

achieving  the  same  end  but  with  skill  and  subtlety,  which, 
perhaps,  he  did  not  condemn.  Sandra  knew  all  about 
them,  too.  A  certain  axiom  of  her  mother's  to  the  effect 
that  a  gentlewoman  had  only  one  kind  of  manners,  oc 
curred  to  her.  "  Only  one  kind  of  manners,'7  Mrs.  Rich 
ard  would  announce  firmly  —  and  then  proceed  to  practise 
half  a  dozen  kinds  with  an  untroubled  spirit!  Sandra 
had  already  fumblingly  discovered  that  this  sophisticated 
humanity  was  in  its  essence  not  humane,  that  it  was  at 
the  very  opposite  pole  from  the  authentic  feeling  of  human 
fellowship,  equal  effort  and  equal  responsibility.  The  girl 
had  learned  in  this  queer  school,  from  teachers  who  never 
suspected  that  they  were  teaching;  now  she  was  oppressed 
by  the  conviction  that  Everett  would  never  learn,  and  yet 
more  heavily  by  the  other  conviction  that  the  fault  lay  not 
as  much  with  the  Boardman  system  as  with  Everett  himself. 
In  the  middle  of  all  this,  another  of  Levison's  state 
ments  coming  into  her  head,  caused  Sandra  to  smile,  in 
stead  of  adding  to  her  anxieties  as  might  have  been  sup 
posed.  The  system  had,  at  least,  the  qualities  of  its  de 
fects;  Everett,  she  was  confident,  would  not  deliberately 
get  into  any  sort  of  philandering  complication  with  Mary 
Schultze.  He  looked  upon  Mary  very  much  as  he  looked 
upon  a  waitress,  a  ladies'  maid,  an  office-girl;  namely,  as 
a  young  woman  to  whom  no  matter  how  pretty  and  attrac 
tive  and  ladylike  she  was,  no  gentleman,  no  Boardman, 
would  pay  attentions.  Letting  morals  alone,  it  would 
show  the  extreme  of  bad  taste,  according  to  Everett ;  if  he 
had  wanted  to  carry  on  a  flirtation,  he  possibly  might  not 
have  boggled  over  such  a  point  as  the  Juliet's  being  mar 
ried  or  single;  the  emphatic  requirement  was  that  she 
should  belong  to  his  own  class.  He  treated  Mary  precisely 
as  he  treated  everybody,  with  a  charming,  frank,  sponta 
neous,  considerate  courtesy;  and  in  private  got  unlimited 


284  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

fun  out  of  her  awkwardnesses,  her  literal  spirit,  her  affair 
with  "  Gus,"  her  boarding-house  aunt,  her  big  angular  nose, 
the  fashionless  fashion  in  which  she  combed  her  extraor 
dinarily  meek-looking  fair  hair,  and  wore  her  prosaic  gar 
ments.  Sandra  judged  him  correctly,  for  once;  he  had 
no  idea  of  pursuing  Mary.  Alack  and  alas,  it  was  the 
other  way  about,  as  she  presently  observed  with  dismay. 

For  poor  Mary  had  discovered  in  Everett  that  prince  of 
romance,  that  noble,  ardent,  mushy,  conqueringly  hand 
some  being,  spotless  —  but  with  a  spice  of  the  devil  in  him ! 
—  whom  every  girl  enshrines  imaginatively  —  every  girl 
and  hosts  of  maturer  females,  wives  and  spinsters  alike,  if 
the  truth  were  known.  He  seldom  comes  true,  luckily,  for 
a  male  population  composed  of  these  paragons  would  be,  in 
the  profane  view,  nothing  short  of  a  public  calamity;  but 
this  very  rarity  enhanced  Everett,  in  Mary's  eyes.  She 
had  never  seen  anybody  like  him;  the  magazine  young 
men,  as  smooth  and  long-legged  and  straight-featured  as 
they  were,  couldn't  hold  a  candle  to  him;  the  moving-pic 
ture  heroes,  to  adopt  the  vernacular  —  as  did  Mary  her 
self  —  weren't  "  in  it "  alongside  of  Everett  Boardman. 
All  the  qualities  which  she  so  admired  in  Sandra,  he  pos 
sessed  in  double  measure;  and  besides  the  distinction,  the 
manners  that  were  at  once  so  fine  and  so  natural,  Everett 
was  indisputably  good-looking.  Whereas  even  her  warm 
est  admirers  would  allow  that  Miss  Boardman's  charm  was 
not  based  upon  physical  perfection,  they  would  contend 
that  that  fact  went  to  prove  her  ability.  She  could  make 
you  believe  momentarily  that  she  was  beautiful  or  hideous, 
or  what  she  chose;  she  could  be  Titania,  she  could  be  the 
Witch  of  Endor  —  and  all  the  while  she  was  nothing  but  a 
wiry  little  white-faced  girl  with  brilliant  eyes. 

That  Everett  was  similarly  endowed,  Mary  was  positive, 
though  nothing  he  had  done  so  far  warranted  her.  To 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  285 

any  one  who  made  that  point  she  would  have  retorted  that 
Mr.  Boardman  had  not  been  given  the  chance,  and  that  he 
would  be  just  as  much  of  a  hit  as  his  sister  if  a  certain 
person  were  to  take  the  same  kind  of  interest  in  him.  She 
had  no  patience  with  de  Voyna  for  not  displaying  more 
enthusiasm  over  the  new  pupil,  and  did  not  scruple  to  ac 
cuse  him  of  jealousy;  and  even  reproached  Sandra  her 
self  for  not  influencing  the  certain  person  in  her  brother's 
behalf.  To  attack  the  Rosenbergs  was  a  little  beyond  her 
courage,  but  according  to  Levisoii's  own  cynically  grinning 
declaration,  she  would  have  pestered  the  life  out  of  him  if 
he  had  not  craftily  dodged  whenever  he  saw  her  coming. 
She  quarrelled  with  the  unfortunate  Gus,  broke  off  the  en 
gagement  and  sent  him  about  his  business.  Never  was 
there  so  complete  and  disastrous  a  change  wrought  in  a 
mild,  prudent,  sensible  young  woman ;  it  was  a  sorry  spec 
tacle,  the  more  so  because  the  foolishness  was  all  on  one 
side,  the  wrong  side,  the  girl's  side. 

For  Everett  was  not  foolish  —  not  he !  Instead  he  was 
—  at  least  in  the  beginning  —  amused  and  annoyed  and 
afraid  of  being  made  ridiculous,  and  rather  chivalrously 
distressed.  He  did  not  want  Mary  to  trail  him  around, 
he  did  not  want  her  to  sit  in  his  presence  unnaturally  silent 
or  unnaturally  gay,  staring  at  him  with  great  eyes,  start 
ing  when  he  spoke  to  her,  and  getting  red  all  over  her 
face,  particularly  at  the  tip  of  that  melancholy  nose.  He 
did  not  want  her  fussing  maternally  over  him,  boring  other 
people  about  him.  He  did  not  want  her  any  way  at  aj], 
but  he  could  not  help  being  polite  to  her,  and  he  could  not 
help  her  misconstruing  his  politeness.  "  Confound  these 
people !  "  the  young  man  thought  impatiently ;  "  they  take 
everything  in  dead  earnest.  If  you  look  once  at  a  girl, 
she  thinks  you're  interested  ;  and  if  you  look  twice  —  Good 
Lord,  you  might  as  well  prono.-p !  They're  ready  to  get 


286  THE  BOABDHAN  FAMILY 

married  at  the  drop  of  a  hat.  Of  course  they  haven't  got 
any  people  or  homes  or  positions  to  consider ;  they  haven't 
had  any  social  experience,  and  nine  out  of  ten  don't  know 
what  their  own  grandfather's  names  were.  I  suppose  that 
accounts  for  them." 

Mr.  Levison,  meanwhile,  was  as  good  as  his  word.  He 
got  Everett  taken  on  as  an  "  extra  "  man  with  the  Climax 
Film  Company,  one  of  the  directors,  Mr.  Ferd  Solomons, 
being  a  personal  friend.  They  were  about  to  produce  a 
screen  version  of  Rip  "Van  Winkle,  and,  as  it  chanced,  had 
selected  a  site  among  the  mountains,  not  far  from  Sandra's 
own  boundaries.  Everett  could  journey  to  and  from  his 
daily  labours  by  motor,  Levison  benevolently  pointed  out. 
"  They  only  pay  the  extras  three  dollars  a  day,  but  it's  an 
opening,"  said  he.  "  Say,  *  listen ! "  He  addressed 
Sandra ;  "  they  were  keen  to  get  you,  when  they  heard 
about  his  being  your  brother.  I  said  I  didn't  see  how  they 
could  work  you  into  that  Eip  Van  Winkle  stuff.  There 
wouldn't  be  any  part  for  you,  not  if  they  played  it  like  Joe 
Jefferson  used  to.  Ferd  was  all  ready  for  me,  though. 
He  was  going  to  fix  it  up  for  you  to  come  on  as  the  Queen 
of  the  Fairies,  or  one  of  these  —  now  —  gnomes,  you  know, 
and  do  a  dance  by  moonlight  with  a  ravine  and  waterfall 
in  the  back.  Some  scene,  hey  ?  You've  got  to  hand  it  to 
Ferd  for  the  ideas!  Still  I  turned  it  down,"  said  Mr. 
Levison  not  without  some  regret.  "  It  wouldn't  be  good 
business  just  now,  in  my  judgment.  Lots  of  people  have  a 
notion  that  when  a  star  goes  in  the  movies,  it's  because  she 
—  he  —  isn't  drawing  any  more  on  the  regular  stage.  All 
piffle,  of  course,  but  you've  got  to  study  the  public  — 
you've  got  to  keep  right  in  touch  with  'em  every  minute. 
Anyhow,  what's  the  hurry?  You  can  do  it  any  time. 
Your  brother  here  is  in  a  different  position.  It's  an 
opening  for  him,  as  I  was  saying." 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  287 

Everett  thanked  him  —  with  much  the  same  manner. 
Sandra  thought,  that  he  would  have  bestowed  a  tip.  No 
body  else  could  possibly  have  found  fault  with  it;  it  was 
perfect  of  its  kind;  but  Sandra  was  unquestionably  by 
way  of  being  somewhat  touchy  these  days.  She  was  con 
scious  of  it,  and  set  it  down  to  nerves,  over-work,  tem 
perament,  anything,  in  short,  except  the  real  cause  which 
she  would  not  acknowledge  to  herself;  that  is,  a  creeping 
dissatisfaction  or  disappointment  or  disillusion  about 
Everett. 

The  young  man  undertook  this  not  very  elevated  em 
ployment  with  a  kind  of  light-hearted  and  aloof  interest, 
preserving  that  attitude  of  Prince  Hal  perversely  frolick 
ing  with  his  inferiors  which  only  Sandra  recognized  and 
resented.  "  Another  Jew !  Apparently  there're  nobody 
but  Jews  in  the  business !  "  he  reported  after  meeting  Solo 
mons.  "  Have  to  be  careful  — "  He  aimed  a  burlesque 
blow  at  his  own  nose  and  dodged  it.  "  Ouch !  That  was 
a  close  one!  This  Solomons  fellow  looks  it  all  over, 
though ;  he's  much  more  of  a  type  than  our  friend  the  late 
Mr.  Levi's  son.  Solomons  is  the  real,  orthodox,  pawn- 
broking,  kosher-meat  kind  that  we  have  so  many  of  at 
home.  You  ought  to  see  him  dashing  around  in  his  shirt 
sleeves,  bawling  at  us  supes  to  'get  action/  But  he's 
greatest  when  he's  showing  Gretchen  and  Rip  and  the  rest 
how  to  (  register '  anger  and  suspense  and  scorn  and  grief, 
and  all  that.  Think  of  a  Jew  Eip,  if  you  can,  without 
laughing!  It's  all  I  can  do  to  keep  my  face  straight. 
But  if  you'll  believe  me,  nobody  else  seems  to  see  anything 
funny  in  it;  they're  as  sober  as  judges,  every  man-jack, 
and  try  to  do  just  what  he  says !  "  Everett  himself,  far 
ing  to  the  Climax  encampment  day  by  day  in  the  big 
automobile,  at  ease  and  cool  and  dressed  with  an  in 
comparable  careless  good  taste,  was  an  unique  apparition 


288  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

for  an  extra,  and  one  which  greatly  intrigued  the  other 
extras,  until  they  heard  who  he  was.  He  brought  back 
more  amusing  stories  of  their  naive  curiosity.  Along  with 
them  he  appeared  in  the  roles  of  villager  and  soldier; 
anon  as  one  of  Hudson's  phantom  crew,  and  in  the  May 
pole  dance  which  Solomons,  the  fertile  in  devices,  intro 
duced  for  an  appropriate  wind-up  to  the  performance. 
Everett  attracted  some  notice  professionally  also;  he  car 
ried  off  even  the  ungainly  costume  of  the  Dutch  colonists 
to  advantage,  and  posed,  walked,  swung  his  staff  or  saluted 
a  lady  with  so  much  more  grace  and  dignity  than  can 
commonly  be  got  for  three  dollars  a  day  that  the  director 
was  a  little  impressed  and  once  or  twice  spoke  vaguely 
of  advancing  him.  His  fellow-extras  kindly  warned  him 
that  there  was  nothing  in  these  fair  words;  but  indeed 
Everett  was  not  likely  to  be  carried  away  by  them;  he 
regarded  Mr.  Solomons  with  the  same  negligent  forbear 
ance  which  he  felt  for  everybody  else  connected  with  the 
theatrical  profession. 

It  exasperated  Sandra;  all  the  more,  perhaps,  because 
she  wanted  to  be  proud  of  her  brother,  wanted  her  lifelong 
admiration  and  affection  to  be  justified.  She  was  far 
more  jealous  for  him  than  for  herself,  and  if  he  had  en 
tered  the  ranks  with  her  and  eclipsed  her,  would  have  been 
happy  over  it.  If,  failing  that,  he  had  merely  adapted 
himself  to  this  world,  tried  to  understand  it,  met  it  on  its 
own  simple,  plain  and  forthright  terms,  she  would  have 
been  satisfied.  But  it  was  as  if  the  ideas  of  caste  in  which 
they  had  both  been  brought  up  had  encased  Everett,  heart 
and  brain,  in  some  shell  of  crystalline  hardness  and  bril 
liancy,  impenetrable.  Sandra  told  herself  that  she  could 
not  get  at  him.  When  she  attempted,  lamely  enough,  to 
argue,  he  either  put  her  aside  with  a  laugh  or  listened 
with  a  blank  courtesy,  as  if  her  speech  were  Sanskrit; 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  289 

when  she  stormed,  he  would  warn  her  with  genuine  re 
luctance,  against  descending  to  melodrama.  Sandra  had 
no  answer  for  that;  it  threw  her  into  a  panic,  calling  up 
an  image  of  herself,  excited,  shrill-voiced,  vulgar,  making 
a  scene;  so  that  Everett  who  never  lost  his  temper  or  forgot 
himself  for  an  instant,  though  he  must  have  been  sorely 
tried,  invariably  retired  with  the  honours.  She  was 
right;  it  was  impossible  to  get  at  him,  by  the  means  that 
Sandra  could  command  at  any  rate ;  and  every  day  seemed 
to  add  another  course  to  the  intangible  wall  building  be 
tween  them. 

Levison,  arriving  unexpectedly  from  town,  and  walking 
in  upon  her  immediately  after  one  of  these  tilts  —  it  hap 
pened,  as  often  before,  that  he  himself  had  been  the  bone 
of  contention !  —  was  mightily  perturbed.  "  What's  the 
matter?  What  have  you  been  crying  about?  You 
haven't  got  any  bad  news  from  home?  Is  your  mother 
sick  or  —  or  anything  ?  "  he  insisted  on  knowing.  He 
has  been  quoted  as  of  the  opinion  that  artistic  stars  should 
not  have  any  sort  of  domestic  ties,  and  now  inwardly 
reaffirmed  it  with  a  strong  anathema  directed  at  the  Board- 
man  connection  to  the  farthest  degree  of  relationship. 

"  Xo,  nothing's  the  matter.  Everybody  is  all  right  — " 
Sandra  managed  to  tell  him ;  then,  to  her  helpless  conster 
nation,  broke  down  suddenly  and  utterly.  "  Oh,  I  can't 
bear  the  way  Everett  —  the  t-things  he  s-says  — "  she 
sobbed,  with  her  hands  over  her  face.  All  at  once  she 
experienced  a  strange  comfort  in  thus  giving  way;  Levison 
would  understand;  lie  would  see  nothing  melodramatic, 
nothing  unworthy  about  it ! 

"  Everett,  hey  ?  "  he  said,  gnawing  the  shoe-brush  mous 
tache  thoughtfully.  "  Well,  don't  cry  so  hard;  you'll  hurt 
yourself.  Everett?  Well,  now,  almost  all  brothers  and 
sisters  have  a  —  a  little  run-in  once  in  a  while.  It's 


290  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

funny;  you  get  madder  at  each  other  than  you  would  at 
an  outsider,  and  say  worse  things.  Never  mind  him. 
He's  all  right  - 

"  You  don't  know  —  he  —  you  don't  know !  "  cried  out 
Sandra.  The  very  kindness  of  the  other's  manner,  of  his 
effort  to  rehabilitate  Everett,  humiliated  her. 

Levison  studied  her  with  the  eye  of  an  expert  diagnos 
tician.  Privately  he  inquired  of  himself,  could  he  beat  it  ? 
And  further  confided  to  the  same  person  that  "  brother  " 
was  a  bird !  "  '  Brother  '  has  a  little  this-style-two-for-a- 
nickel  job  keeping  books  or  something  back  home; 
i  brother '  don't  amount  to  a  row  of  pins.  But  he's  in 
society,  and  stage-dancers  aren't  —  isn't  it  just  too  shock 
ing  about  sister  ?  He's  so  ashamed  of  her  he  can't  hardly 
hold  up  his  head  —  till  he  gets  wise  to  her  making  about 
forty-eleven  times  as  much  money  as  he's  ever  seen  and 
then  why  shouldn't  he  come  east  and  get  in  the  game  him 
self  ?  He  can  live  off  of  her  in  the  meanwhile.  Fine! 
Splendid !  At-a-boy !  "  thought  Sandra's  director  with  a 
species  of  admiring  contempt.  But  aloud  he  only  haz 
arded  :  "  Has  he  been  asking  you  —  that  is,  does  he  — 
now  —  want  money  ?  " 

"  No,  no !  Not  now  —  not  this  time.  But  I  don't 
mind  that  I  want  to  —  I  like  to!  If  it  was  only 
that — /  But  he  doesn't  appreciate  —  he  doesn't  under 
stand —  I  can't  make  him  understand!  Everything 
you've  done  for  him,  I  mean.  You're  all  the  time  doing 
something  —  and  he  —  he  seems  to  think  it's  nothing  — 
he  —  I  hate  the  way  he  talks  — " 

Levison  stood  over  her  unaesthetically  posed,  with  his 
hands  in  his  pockets,  looking  down  at  her  bowed  head; 
she  did  not  see  a  dark  colour  mount  quickly  all  over  his 
coarse-complexioned  face,  and  as  quickly  fade,  leaving  it 
paler  than  usual.  "  Talks  about  me  ?  You're  crying  be- 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  291 

cause  —  ?  "  he  began  precipitately,  but  at  once  checked 
himself  as  if  before  some  obstacle  the  approaches  to  which 
must  first  be  reconnoitred.  "  He  don't  appreciate  what 
I've  done?  Well,  now  —  maybe  I  didn't  do  it  just  for 
him  —  quite." 

"  I  know,"  said  Sandra  simply.  "  It's  because  of  his 
being  my  brother.  But  just  the  same,  he  oughtn't  to  — 
he  ought  to  — " 

He  sat  down  beside  her  with  a  movement  conveying  a 
certain  resolution  made  and  acted  upon  point-blank. 
"  Say,  listen !  I  know  all  about  your  brother.  He's  a 
society  fellow  and  an  aristocrat,  and  I  know  he  looks  down 
on  everybody  that  isn't  — " 

"  Oh,  no,  please  !  Everett  doesn't  —  he's  not  like  that 
—  he  doesn't  do  that  — "  Sandra  stammered,  horrified  at 
the  bald  statement;  it  belonged  in  the  same  category  as 
other  truths  too  unseemly  to  be  uttered.  "  Everett 
wouldn't  — " 

"  No,  of  course  he  wouldn't  tell  anybody  so,"  pursued 
Levison  undisturbed  —  in  fact,  with  a  flickering  grin. 
"  He  wouldn't  go  around  swelling  himself  all  up  and  tell 
ing  people:  'I'm  Everett  Boardman !  Who  in  the 
blankety-blank  are  you  ? '  That  would  be  crude,  you 
know.  Besides,  he  doesn't  have  to.  He  looks  the  part 
all  over ;  he  acts  it,  without  saying  a  word.  He  can't  any 
more  help  it  than  he  can  help  breathing.  Well,  now,  if 
you  don't  mind  my  saying  so,  that's  all  he's  got.  That's 
all  there  is  to  him,  and  he's  right  to  play  it  up.  As  far  as 
it  goes,  it's  invaluable.  There  isn't  one  man  in  a  thousand 
that's  got  it." 

Sandra  was  without  words ;  she  sat  gazing  at  him,  bend 
ing  all  her  energies  to  grasp  what  he  was  saying. 

"  Fact !  "  said  Levison,  nodding  at  her.  "  That  air,  or 
manner,  or  front,  or  whatever  you  want  to  call  it,  ought 


292  THE  BOAKDMAJST  FAMILY 

to  be  worth  dollars  to  him.  In  addition,  he's  a  very  hand 
some  man,  but  looks  don't  stick.  And  if  he  doesn't  watch 
out,  and  lets  himself  get  two  or  three  inches  thicker  round 
the  waist,  and  a  little  round  bald  spot  on  top,  it'll  be  harder 
for  him  to  play  that  aristocratic  business.  And  that's  all 
lie's  got!"  repeated  Levison  forcibly.  He  was  serious 
now;  his  seriousness  dominated,  despite  the  grotesque 
image  he  evoked;  and  Sandra  saw  Everett  stout,  middle- 
aged,  devoid  of  charm,  the  figure  of  cheap  tragedy  that  he 
would  undoubtedly  be. 

"All  —  lies  —  got!"  said  Levison  again.  "If  you 
don't  mind  my  saying  so  —  ?  "  And  as  Sandra,  still 
speechless,  shook  her  head,  he  added :  "  You  know  what  I 
mean  ?  You've  got  it  yourself." 

"  I  have  it  ?  "  ejaculated  Sandra.  Panic  struck  through 
her. 

"  Oh,  you've  got  a  lot  more  besides.  You've  got  every 
thing  !  "  Levison  said  in  swift  understanding.  He  paused 
a  moment,  then  said,  lowering  his  voice :  "  You're  differ 
ent.  There  isn't  anybody  like  you.  That's  what  took  me 
at  the  very  first." 

His  manner  said  so  much  more  than  his  words  that 
Sandra  withdrew  her  eyes  in  another  panic  of  very  differ 
ent  origin.  She  felt  herself  growing  scarlet,  cast  des 
perately  about  for  something  to  say,  and  found  her  mind 
empty.  The  sofa  creaked  as  Levison  hitched  himself 
nearer  her. 

"  You  knew,  didn't  you  ?     Girls  always  do." 

"I  —  I  suppose  I  did,"  faltered  Sandra  miserably. 
She  was  wishing  wildly  that  he  was  not  a  Jew;  that  his 
skin  was  not  so  oily  and  shiny;  that  the  sofa  had  not 
creaked  with  his  weight  just  now ;  that  his  hands  were  not 
so  thick  and  excessively  manicured  and  covered  with  black 
hair  on  the  backs ;  that  he  did  not  use  perfumed  soap  and 


THE  BOAEDMAIST  FAMILY  293 

wear  shoes  that  pinched ;  that  he  would  speak  in  a  natural 
voice,  and  not  breathe  in  that  gasping  way.  She  wished 
that  she  could  stop  thinking  these  silly  and  degrading 
things.  She  was  in  an  anguish  of  compassion,  of  unrea 
sonable  fury  at  herself. 

"  It  was  a  case  of  '  first  sight '  with  me,"  said  Levison. 
He  moved  toward  her  again,  dropping  his  arm  along  the 
back  of  the  sofa  behind  her.  Their  shoulders  almost 
touched.  Suddenly  he  began  to  talk  eagerly,  without  re 
straint.  "  Say,  listen !  The  minute  I  saw  you  at  that 
Claude  outfit,  I  said  to  myself :  '  Here's  the  girl  that  gets 
mine ! '  You  don't  know  what  you  looked  like  in  that 
bunch  of  selling  platers.  Why,  they  weren't  even  good 
enough  for  scenery  for  you !  I  saw  right  off  the  kind  you 
were  —  aristocrat  through  and  through.  Say,  you  know 
I  was  afraid  you'd  see  I  was  crazy  about  you,  and  yet  I 
wanted  you  to.  You  used  to  bow  to  me  on  the  street 
before  we'd  been  regularly  introduced,  but  I  knew  too 
much  to  get  fresh  with  you  because  of  that;  I  knew  you 
were  only  doing  it  out  of  kindness.  You'd  have  done  it 
for  a  hired  man  —  a  chauffeur  or  a  butler  or  anybody  like 
that,  if  you  happened  to  know  'em.  I  used  to  plan  what 
I'd  say  to  you  when  we  met,  and  then  when  we  did  meet 
I  couldn't  say  a  word  of  it ;  I  couldn't  say  anything  sensi 
ble.  I  used  to  wonder  how  many  different  kinds  of  a  fool 
you  thought  I  was  — " 

"  No,  no,  Mr.  Levison,  I  —  I  didn't  think  —  I  didn't 
notice  — " 

"  Then  when  I  got  over  that,  when  I  got  so  I  could  talk 
like  my  natural  self,  I  was  still  kind  of  afraid  —  afraid 
you'd  know,  and  afraid  you  wouldn't  know!  And  I 
couldn't  get  up  the  nerve  to  tell  you.  One  time  I  nearly 
did ;  that  time  when  we  were  talking  about  my  going  away, 
remember  —  ? " 


294:  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

It  seemed  to  Sandra  abominable  that  she  did  not  remem 
ber  at  all,  abominable  to  tell  him  so,  abominable  to  encour 
age  him  by  a  humane  fib.  But  she  was  spared  the  choice 
for  Levison  went  on  without  waiting  for  her,  pouring  out 
the  fulness  of  his  heart  with  an  abandon  in  which  the 
girl  could  detect  a  note  of  confident  expectation  naive  and 
pathetic  and  terrifying. 

"  I  saw  you  weren't  ready  for  me.  You  knew,  but  you 
sort  of  shied  off  from  the  notion.  You  wanted  to  take 
your  own  time  about  it.  Well,  I  thought  to  myself,  that 
was  all  right !  I  guess  that's  a  girl's  privilege.  So  I  held 
myself  down  to  strictly  business  relations,  like  I've  always 
done.  But,  my  God,  it's  been  hard !  "  he  uttered,  with 
the  gesture  Everett  so  often  burlesqued.  Some  ironic 
demon  brought  her  brother  before  Sandra's  eyes,  flourish 
ing  his  hands,  raising  his  shoulders,  copying  the  other's 
intonation  with  subtle  exaggerations.  She  did  not  dare 
to  look  at  her  unfortunate  suitor. 

Levison  drew  a  long,  tremulous  sigh.  "  I've  told  you 
now  anyhow.  I  couldn't  hold  in  any  longer."  He 
stooped  towards  her.  "  Say,  little  girl,  it's  all  right  ? 
You  do  care  a  little,  hey  ?  " 

Sandra  sat  dumb;  at  the  moment  she  would  have  sold 
her  soul  to  have  cared  for  him,  even  to  have  been  able  to 
pretend  it. 

"  I  don't  mean  you  feel  the  way  I  do,"  said  Levison. 
"  A  woman  can't,  I  guess.  I  —  why,  I'd  lay  down  and 
let  you  walk  over  me ;  I'd  stick  my  hand  in  the  fire,  if  it 
would  get  you  anything.  Maybe  you  think  that  Marion 
ettes'  job  and  that  record-breaker  salary  I  held  up  Rosen 
berg  for,  maybe  you  think  that's  a  whole  lot !  Why,  say, 
listen,  it's  nothing  to  what  I'd  do  for  you,  if  —  if  —  if  we 
got  married.  You  could  have  anything  you  wanted.  You 
could  keep  on  dancing,  if  you're  set  on  it.  I'll  let  you  do 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  295 

anything  you  feel  like.  I  don't  care  just  so  you're 
happy." 

He  took  her  hand  with  a  kind  of  timid  violence.  San 
dra,  within  the  circle  of  his  trembling  arm,  was  rigid. 
"  I  love  you/'  said  Levison,  hoarsely. 

There  was  a  pause  of  sheer  horror  to  the  girl.  Her 
hand  lay  in  his  inert;  she  divined  that  the  contact  which 
turned  her  to  stone  sent  thrills  of  fierce  rapture  through 
the  man,  and  the  knowledge  somehow  shamed  her. 

"  Can't  you  say  something  to  me,  Sandra  ?  " 

"  I  want  to  think,"  Sandra  articulated  with  her  cold  lips. 

"  I'm  going  away,  you  know.  It's  a  sure  thing  this 
time,"  said  Levison  with  an  ingenuous  hopefulness. 
"  I've  got  to.  I  was  going  to  take  my  passage  this  coming 
Saturday,  and  then  I  thought  —  I  thought  maybe  I'd  bet 
ter  wait  and  —  and  see  if  I  wouldn't  want  two  passages. 
I'd  get  one  of  those  deck-suites  on  a  fast  boat,  you  know. 
The  best's  good  enough  for  us,  hey  ?  " 

Sandra  could  not  control  her  recoil.  "I  —  oh, 
please  — !  " 

He  let  her  slip  from  his  arms  in  a  little  alarm.  "  Why, 
little  girl,  what's  the  matter  ?  My  God,  don't  cry ;  don't ! 
What  did  I  do?  Was  I  rough?  Say,  listen,  I  didn't 
mean  to  scare  you.  I  —  I  just  had  to  tell  you.  Say,  I 
guess  I  am  a  fool  all  right,  all  right !  I  hadn't  any  busi 
ness  talking  about  deck-suites,  and  —  and  speeding  things 
up  that  way.  You're  the  one  to  decide  all  that,  of  course. 
Say,  forget  it!  You've  got  to  have  more  time  to  think 
about  it,  you  said  just  now,  anyhow.  Well  — "  he  heaved 
another  sigh.  "  I  suppose  you  haven't  been  thinking 
about  pretty  much  nothing  else  for  months  and  months, 
like  I've  been.  I  ought  to  have  remembered  that.  A 
thoroughbred  like  you  is  just  a  bundle  of  nerves,  anyhow. 
Say,  want  me  to  go  away  ?  " 


296  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

"  Yes,  please  —  only  you've  been  so  good  to  me  —  I'm 
so  sorry  — "  stammered  the  girl.  "  I  don't  know  what's 
the  matter  with  me  —  I  —  I  can't  - 

"  Can't  make  up  your  mind  ?  "  Levison  queried.  She 
moved  her  head  non-committally,  incapable  of  the  truth. 
Levison  got  up  lingeringly.  "  Well  —  all  right  —  take 
your  time/'  he  said  with  forced  patience.  "  I  guess  I'll 
have  to  go  over  by  myself.  I  can  go  and  get  back  in  four 
weeks  —  or  six  maybe.  Then  you'll  be  ready,  hey  ?  " 

He  went,  looking  serious,  but  not  particularly  downcast ; 
perhaps  his  prospects  did  not  seem  so  dubious  to  him  as 
they  would  have  to  any  impartial  eavesdropper  on  the 
scene.  He  went;  and  when  Mary  Schultze,  guessing  at 
what  had  occurred,  imparted  her  suspicions  to  Everett, 
and  when  Everett  by  a  roundabout  joke  or  two  hinted  at 
Levison's  pretensions,  Sandra  made  no  attempt  at  denial. 

"  He  asked  me  to  marry  him,  Everett,"  she  said  wearily. 
"  I  daresay  you  know  it  already.  I'm  to  give  him  an  an 
swer  when  he  gets  back  from  Europe.  He's  sailing  the 
first  week  in  August." 

Everett  did  not  laugh,  he  did  not  sneer,  he  did  not 
bring  forward  in  objection  Levison's  race  or  manners  or 
social  standing,  although  any  of  these  actions  would  have 
been  natural  from  him.  Instead  he  whistled  under  his 
breath,  paused,  then  said  with  the  semi-humorous  gravity 
which  he  often  assumed :  "  Well,  San,  he's  the  czar  — 
the  main  guy,  as  Miss  Lloyd  would  say.  One  wouldn't 
want  to  offend  him  —  one  wouldn't  want  to  offend  any 
body,  of  course ;  but  Levison  could  make  it  very  unpleasant 
with  all  the  authority  he  has.  I  suppose  you're  —  you're 
going  to  temporize  ?  Girls  know  all  kinds  of  ways." 

Sandra  did  not  answer ;  she  felt  hopelessly  that  she  had 
known  beforehand  just  what  Everett  would  say. 


CHAPTER  XI 

LEVISON  sailed  on  a  steamer  christened  in  compli 
ment  to  an  august  foreign  personage  whom  it  is  pos 
sible  history  will  remember  only  because  of  this  use  of 
her  name  —  if  indeed  history  takes  any  note  of  the  lady 
at  all.  The  crowded  records  of  our  times  will  scarcely 
give  much  space  to  princesses,  unless  in  some  such  con 
nection.  Sandra  did  not  see  her  manager  again  before 
his  departure,  a  fact  for  which  the  girl  was  remorsefully 
thankful ;  but  the  morning  he  left,  she  received  a  square, 
neat,  taut  envelope  of  roughened  paper  with  the  sign  of  a 
well-known  photographer  in  one  corner,  which  being 
opened  revealed  a  sepia-coloured  likeness  that  had  "  Yours 
faithfully,  Max,"  sprawled  slantwise  across  the  bottom  of 
it,  with  a  great  flourish  trailing  off  from  the  final  letter. 
There  he  stood,  cane,  silk  hat,  moustache,  watch-chain, 
eye-compelling  waistcoat  and  all,  in  a  "  grand-opera  atti 
tude,'''  as  Everett  characterized  it  with  laughter,  for  which 
nobody  endowed  with  a  grain  of  humour  could  have  blamed 
him.  Sandra  heroically  set  the  picture  up  on  her  desk. 

If  she  did  not  miss  her  lover,  with  all  the  sentimental 
implications  of  that  phrase,  she  certainly  felt  a  deeper 
sense  of  isolation  which  might  have  gratified  him ;  it 
frightened  Sandra  by  making  evident  the  extent  of  her 
dependence  on  him.  She  had  often  and  freely  said  that 
she  owed  Levison  everything,  but  now  for  the  first  time 
realized  with  what  mortified  and  rebellious  vanity,  with 
what  dire  forebodings,  that  it  was  literally  true.  She  did 

owe  him  everything,  and,  more  bitter  realization  still,  she 

297 


298  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

must  continue  to  owe  him.  For,  no  matter  how  secure 
her  position  might  appear,  Sandra  knew  in  her  heart  that 
were  Levison's  support  and  interest  and  advice  to  be  with 
drawn,  she  could  riot  sustain  herself  an  instant.  Yes,  she 
might  laugh  at,  she  might  disdain  his  huckstering  meth 
ods,  his  dollar-mark  ethics,  his  pushing,  clamorous,  in 
sistent  pursuit  of  the  public,  but  without  all  that,  where 
would  she  be?  She  clung  to  her  belief  in  herself  writh  a 
kind  of  despairing  arrogance,  repeating  that  she  knew  she 
could  dance ;  but  she  could  not  do  these  other  things  which, 
ironically,  seemed  to  be  just  as  necessary  to  the  success 
of  an  artist.  It  humiliated  her  strangely  to  discover  that 
Levison,  for  his  part,  did  not  believe  in  her ;  his  innocent 
boasting  proved  it ;  he  would  have  done  the  same,  namely : 
made  a  popular  star  out  of  her,  forced  her  down  the  pub 
lic  throat  one  way  or  another,  had  she  been  incapable  of 
dancing  a  step.  To  be  sure,  her  talent,  such  as  it  was, 
must  have  facilitated  the  enterprise,  but  to  Levison  that 
was  merely  incidental.  He  did  not  care  whether  she  could 
dance  or  not;  he  had  been  governed  all  along  by  the  old, 
the  immemorially  old  desire  of  the  man  in  love  to  get  his 
beloved  what  she  wanted,  and  be  rewarded  for  it. 

Well,  then,  Sandra  sometimes  thought  desperately,  why 
not  reward  him,  and  be  done  with  it?  He  was  a  good 
man,  she  told  herself  warmly;  there  were  fine  qualities 
in  his  character  besides  the  force  which  she  had  always 
recognized  and  respected;  he  loved  her  genuinely,  and  he 
had  a  right  to  expect  some  return  for  all  he  had  done. 
If  only  he  had  not  expected  this  particular  kind  of  return ! 
If  only  there  had  not  been  something  hideously  comic 
about  the  idea  of  being  Mrs.  Max  Levison !  She  could  see 
her  mother's  face;  and  imagination  pitilessly  rehearsed 
for  her  the  poor  lady's  efforts  to  be  gracious  to  such  a  son- 
in-law,  to  account  for  him  and  for  Sandra  herself,  to  save 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  299 

the  Boardman  face,  in  short,  before  the  Boardman  world. 
As  for  that  world,  Sandra  assured  herself  vehemently  that 
she  was  done  with  it  for  good  and  all;  at  its  best,  repre 
sented  by  her  mother,  it  was  occupied  with  trivial  mat 
ters  and  spent  its  strength  in  trivial  pursuits;  and  at  its 
worst,  represented  by  Mrs.  George  Thatcher,  it  was  a 
place  of  struggles  and  ambitions  which  in  success  or  fail 
ure  were  equally  ignoble.  Nevertheless,  she  flinched  in 
forecasting  the  comment  which  experience  taught  her 
would  follow  the  news.  So  Sandra  Boardman  had  fallen 
in  line  with  the  rest  of  them!  Everybody  on  the  stage 
gets  married  half-a-dozen  times,  you  know;  it's  a  habit! 
Sandra  was  just  getting  a  start;  the  divorce  would  follow 
in  due  order;  give  her  time.  This  first  venture  was  her 
manager.  Oh,  yes,  that  was  quite  en  regie,  like  having 
your  jewels  stolen ;  you  married  your  manager,  or  else  tore 
his  eyes  out  —  anything  to  get  into  the  newspapers !  He 
was  a  Jew.  No,  really  ?  What  an  anti-climax !  So  that 
was  all  her  wonderful,  gorgeous  career  had  come  to.  Dear 
me,  she  could  have  stayed  at  home  and  done  that  much  — 
married  a  Jew! 

It  never  entered  her  head  to  write  home  and  invite 
counsel;  the  proceeding  would  have  been  as  preposterous 
as  to  have  referred  Levison  to  her  father.  To  shoulder 
her  own  responsibilities,  to  be  completely  alone  in  any 
crisis,  were  the  privileges  of  independence.  She  would 
not  have  relinquished  them ;  yet  in  her  melancholy  moods 
Sandra  looked  back  wistfully  upon  the  old  order,  com 
pared  it  with  the  present,  and  wondered  if  the  game  were 
worth  the  candle  after  all. 

As  it  happened,  even  if  she  had  dreamed  of  returning 
to  the  role  of  the  home-dwelling  girl,  it  would  have  been 
impracticable;  for  that  summer  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Eichard 
had  set  out  on  a  tour  of  the  West  which  Sandra  herself 


300  THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY 

persuaded  them  to  take.  "  It's  a  wedding-present  from 
me  for  your  thirtieth  anniversary,"  she  had  written.  The 
Grand  Canon,  San  Francisco,  Seattle,  the  National  Park 
and  Royal  Gorge  —  letters  and  brilliantly  illuminated 
postcards  visited  her  from  all  these  places;  there  were 
photographs  of  the  two,  smiling  broadly,  shrugged  up  in 
mufflers  and  winter  coats  on  Pike's  Peak  while  the  East 
ern  summer-resorts  sweltered  through  July  days.  They 
wrote  gaily  of  misadventures  and  funny  happenings,  of  the 
"  weird  "  people  they  met,  Cook's  tourists,  bands  of  the 
Fraternal  Order  of  Owls,  Buffaloes  or  what-not,  on  an 
outing.  Over  and  over  again  they  assured  her  that  they 
were  "having  a  beautiful  time  —  just  like  a  bride  and 
groom,  for  all  our  two  old  grey  heads !  "  Mrs.  Boardman 
wrote.  They  seemed  more  like  a  pair  of  children,  Sandra 
thought  tenderly.  Poor  Moms,  poor  Dad,  they  had  not 
been  anywhere  for  a  long  while;  she  could  not  remember 
their  having  gone  off  on  a  jaunt  together  like  this  since  she 
and  Everett  had  grown  up.  The  reason  was  not  far  to 
seek.  She  meant  to  make  it  up  to  them  —  all  those  years 
of  self-denial,  all  the  money  and  care  they  had  lavished 
on  their  boy  and  girl.  She  had  made  a  beginning  already ; 
next  year  she  would  —  Sandra  stopped  short  in  the  mid 
dle  of  her  Alnaschar  planning,  envisaging  the  likelihood 
that  what  she  would  do  next  year  depended  on  what  she 
did  this,  on  what  she  did  at  the  end  of  four  weeks,  or  six 
weeks. 

That  was  the  time  set  by  Levison.  Hundreds  and  thou 
sands  of  Americans  were  looking  ahead  as  confidently, 
millions  of  other  races  all  over  the  world  were  going  about 
their  tiny,  all-important  affairs,  taking  reasonable  thought 
for  the  morrow,  with  the  huge  drag-net  of  Circumstance 
about  the  feet  of  every  one.  Wherever  men  are,  they  have 
always  lived  in  the  midst  of  great  events  and  daily  mira- 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  301 

cles ;  but  it  is  only  lately  that  we  Lave  become  aware  of  it. 
Ominous  news  was  circling  the  globe  when  Levison  set 
out,  arsenals  were  busy,  troops  in  motion ;  a  famous  phrase 
concerning  scraps  of  paper  was  already  uttered;  a  young 
king  had  ringingly  declared  that  his  country  was  a  coun 
try,  not  a  road.  And  presently  more  news  of  as  grave 
import  clicked  down  the  wireless  mast  of  the  princess's 
namesake,  and  caused  that  well-advised  vessel  to  turn  about 
in  full  career  and  make  all  speed  on  the  backward  route. 
Levison  liked  to  tell  of  being  waked  at  dawn  by  the  sun 
light  blazing  through  the  port  where  it  had  no  business 
to  enter,  and  wondering  whether  he  had  gotten  drunk  or 
been  drugged,  or  suddenly  gone  insane  overnight,  so  that 
the  ship  authorities  had  been  obliged  to  confine  him  in 
another  cabin  on  the  opposite  side.  He  hurried  into  some 
clothes  and  on  deck,  and  found  many  other  passengers 
similarly  aroused,  shivering  in  groups,  besieging  the  of 
ficers  as  they  passed.  They  told  him  what  they  had  al 
ready  heard.  The  Germans  were  advancing  on  the  Bel 
gian  frontier;  England  had  declared  war;  the  whole  con 
tinent  of  Europe  was  mad  —  mad ! 

The  magnitude  of  the  facts  confounded  their  minds,  like 
the  incomprehensible  magnitudes  of  the  universe.  War 
amongst  half  a  dozen  of  the  ultra-civilized  nations  at  this 
date  —  in  this  twentieth  century !  It  was  an  anachro 
nism,  an  abhorrent  absurdity.  But  one  thing,  at  all  events, 
was  very  certain :  it  could  not  last.  Not  with  the  terrific 
engines  of  destruction  modern  science  has  devised.  Some 
few  bets  were  laid  that  three  or  four  months  at  most  would 
see  the  end  of  it.  They  joked  a  little,  with  characteristic 
American  levity.  Thanksgivings  that  the  United  States 
were  out  of  the  struggle  were  unanimous.  The  ship  with 
her  population  of  safe,  ignorant,  careless,  prosperous  souls 
figured  the  entire  country  this  side  the  Atlantic. 


302  THE  BOAKDMAN"  FAMILY 

"  There's  one  thing  sure :  if  it  lasts  any  time,  it'll  put  a 
crimp  in  the  Victorgraph  business,"  one  passenger  re 
marked  without  a  very  deep-seated  pessimism,  however. 
"  'Kound  about  Christmas  is  our  heaviest  trade." 

"  I  don't  see  all  of  you  talking-machine  people  going  to 
the  poor-house,  though,  because  of  your  exports  falling  off 
for  a  little  while.  We're  sure  to  be  neutral,  and  there  are 
others.  It's  none  of  our  fuss.  Let  'em  fight  it  out  till 
the  cows  come  home;  it's  nothing  to  us,"  another  man 
pointed  out. 

Somebody  else  thoughtfully  observed  that  all  the  same 
he'd  like  mighty  well  to  know  what  happened  on  the  stock- 
market  the  day  England  went  in.  Levison  frankly  ex 
pressed  a  complete  indifference  to  the  stock-market,  even 
to  the  war  itself,  except  as  the  fluctuations  of  both  affected 
the  pockets  of  his  audiences.  He  was  deeply  annoyed  at 
the  delay  and  the  disarrangement  of  his  plans.  "  I've  got 
dates  with  a  dozen  people  on  the  other  side,  and  they  aren't 
the  kind  that  will  stick  around  and  wait  for  me  either. 
Now  I've  got  to  go  back  home  and  start  all  over  again 
on  another  boat,  and  this  infernal  fool  of  a  wireless  man 
won't  take  a  single  message  for  me,  no  difference  what  I 
offer/'  he  lamented  disgustedly.  Many  of  the  rest  sym 
pathized  with  him;  they  had  engagements  equally  press 
ing,  and  they  too  had  found  the  wireless  man  impregnable. 

"  You  should  worry,  though,"  one  of  them  said.  "  If 
they  keep  on  fighting  in  Europe,  you  ought  to  have  a  ban 
ner  season  in  the  show  business.  With  Paris  and  Monte 
Carlo  shut  up  there  won't  be  any  place  for  us  to  go  when 
we  want  a  good  time,  so  we'll  all  have  to  spend  our  money 
at  home.  That's  where  the  theatrical  managers  and 
movie-men  and  hotel-keepers  go  to  bat,  hey?  Am  I 
right?" 

"  Yeah,  but  maybe  you  won't  have  any  money  to  spend," 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  303 

retorted  Levison.  "  If  the  bottom  goes  out  of  everything 
like  that  Saint  Louis  broker  —  what's-his-name  —  said  it 
might."  However,  the  others'  point  of  view  was  cheer 
ing.  Max  was  able  to  return  to  the  poker  game  —  whereat 
he  was  a  seasoned  and  astute  practitioner  —  with  almost 
his  usual  relish.  Even  if  the  rest  of  the  country  went 
broke,  there  was  always  money  in  New  York,  he  said  to 
himself;  there  was  the  hope  of  something  else  in  New 
York,  the  thought  of  which  set  his  pulses  thumping.  She 
was  to  give  him  his  answer  at  the  end  of  this  trip,  and 
wasn't  this  the  end  of  it  \  Once  or  twice  he  felt  uneasily 
that  it  might  not  be  considered  quite  sporting  to  hold  her 
down  to  the  letter  of  her  promise  in  these  circumstances; 
it  was  like  taking  advantage  of  a  technicality.  Well,  that 
was  what  any  smart  lawyer  would  do.  And  anyhow,  she 
was  about  ready  to  say  yes ;  she  only  wanted  to  be  coaxed. 
His  impatience  and  excitement  got  a  little  out  of  control ; 
he  played  recklessly,  but  won,  and  took  it  as  a  good  sign, 
and  got  rather  boisterous  and  ordered  champagne.  At 
Bar  Harbor,  where  the  ship  put  in,  he  was  violently 
tempted  to  land  and  take  the  express  to  New  York;  but 
with  what  in  later  and  calmer  moments  he  regarded  as  his 
last  saving  vestige  of  common-sense,  remained  on  board. 
It  was  a  feat  of  self-restraint  of  which  he  sometimes 
boasted.  "  I  didn't  have  to  be  nailed  down  to  the  deck 
either.  I  kept  reminding  myself  that  I'd  paid  three  hun 
dred  dollars  for  my  passage,  and  by  G ,  I  meant  to  get 

the  worth  of  it !  And  say,  listen,  I  heard  afterwards  that 
lots  of  'em  that  got  off,  and  went  down  to  New  York  by 
train,  and  expected  the  company  would  refund  some  of 
their  money,  got  fooled !  " 

He  reached  home  and  the  newspapers  to  find  that  the 
situation  was  even  more  complicated  than  he  and  his  trav 
elling  companions,  marooned  as  they  had  been  on  board 


304  THE  BOARDMAlsr  FAMILY 

ship  without  benefit  of  the  wireless,  had  surmised.  The 
Atlantic  was  rumoured  to  be  alive  with  German  raiders, 
ready  to  pounce  down  on  any  of  their  enemies'  vessels; 
that  is,  on  nearly  every  one  in  the  passenger  traffic. 
Europe  was  out  of  the  question,  for  the  time,  at  any  rate ; 
Americans  over  there  were  scrambling  to  get  away;  there 
was  no  money  to  be  had;  the  United  States  was  going  to 
send  a  cruiser  loaded  to  the  gunwales  with  specie  to  help 
out  some  of  the  unfortunates.  "  Charlie'll  be  camping 
on  the  docks  waiting  for  her,  with  his  pockets  turned  in 
side  out,"  Levison  said  to  himself  with  a  cynical  grin. 
The  younger  Rosenberg  had  gone  over  earlier  in  the  sum 
mer.  Levison  went  up  to  the  office,  and  received  a  morose 
welcome  from  the  other  Rosenberg.  Nothing  doing  in 
cablegrams,  it  appeared ;  you  had  to  stand  in  line,  and  at 
the  rate  they  were  going  it  would  be  three  days  before  you 
got  your  message  even  taken  down  and  filed  and  then  they 
couldn't  tell  you  when  they  would  be  able  to  transmit  it. 
The  other  Rosenberg  swore  fervidly.  His  concern  was 
not  fraternal ;  Charlie  was  equal  to  taking  care  of  himself. 
Mr.  Rosenberg  was  thinking  of  unsigned  contracts,  and 
opportunities  lost  — "  gone  blah,"  as  he  tersely  put  it,  add 
ing  a  few  remarks  to  the  general  effect  that  you  couldn't 
hold  the  public  without  novelties;  he  bitterly  enumerated 
some  that  he  had  expected  to  ensnare.  Levison  cheerfully 
reminded  him  of  "  Sandra  " ;  but  Rosenberg  senior  only 
turned  a  cold  eye  upon  him  with  the  statement  that  he 
(Levison)  made  him  (Rosenberg)  tired,  and  relapsed  into 
moody  silence.  Sandra's  manager  went  away  with  a 
thoughtful  countenance. 

He  telegraphed  her.  "...  Was  coming  up  today  "but 
unexpected  business.  Got  a  new  scheme  for  'you.  Don't 
worry.  See  you  tomorrow.  Yours,  Max'9  he  wrote, 
smiling  fatuously ;  and,  in  fact,  telling  himself  that  a  man 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  305 

in  love  was  a  good  deal  of  a  fool,  but  he  couldn't  help  it, 
and  the  little  girl  would  think  it  funny  if  he  didn't  burn 
up  the  road  getting  to  her  right  off.  Of  course  she  knew 
of  his  sudden  return ;  she  must  have  seen  the  papers.  She 
had  indeed  with  a  trapped  sensation.  But  honest  Max 
had  no  slightest  suspicion  of  his  lady's  actual  state  of 
mind;  he  regarded  himself  as  an  engaged  man  already, 
and  on  his  arrival  at  the  Catskill  cottage  only  refrained 
from  certain  proprietary  acts  because  of  the  presence  of 
her  brother  and  Miss  Schultze,  one  of  whom  Sandra  con 
trived  to  keep  constantly  by  her.  The  lover  took  this  as  a 
fresh  evidence  of  the  aristocratic  delicacy  which  had 
charmed  him  from  the  first,  and  obliged  himself  to  be  con 
tent  with  looking  at  her  in  a  way  which  Everett  thought 
it  the  part  of  a  gentleman  not  to  notice. 

"  Well,  here  I  am  back  again !  "  was  Mr.  Levison's 
highly  original  greeting;  he  allowed  himself  to  give  San 
dra's  hand  a  significant  pressure,  while  he  nodded  at  the 
others.  "  The  little  old  U.  S.  looks  pretty  good  to  me,  too. 
What  d'ye  suppose  has  got  into  all  of  'em  over  there  ? " 
He  gave  them  some  account  of  his  three  or  four  days' 
cruise.  "  Say,  you  know  it  was  such  a  queer  experience 
that  I  don't  mind  having  had  it,  even  if  it  was  a  fierce 
waste  of  time,  and  knocks  everything  gaily-west.  It  seems 
the  old  boat  was  carrying  over  a  lot  of  money  —  real 
money,  I  mean,  dollars,  you  know  —  and  that's  the  reason 
she  put  back  in  such  a  hurry.  They  were  afraid  the  Ger 
mans  would  nip  it.  We  didn't  know  that  —  they  didn't 
tell  the  passengers,  of  course,  or  we'd  all  have  been  worse 
frightened  than  we  were.  They  wouldn't  have  done  any 
thing  to  us,  if  they  had  caught  us ;  we  haven't  got  anything 
to  do  with  their  war.  All  the  same,  it  was  kind  of  scare-y. 
Your  friend  Thatcher  was  on  board." 

"  Was  he  ? "  said  Sandra ;  her  colour  flamed  and  died. 


306  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

V 

Mary  glanced  at  her,  and  went  on  crocheting  with  calm 
fingers.  There  was  a  letter  from  Sam  which  had  come 
in  that  morning's  mail  lying  on  Sandra's  desk  at  the  very 
moment.  Miss  Schultze's  expressionless  face  did  not  be 
tray  her  instantly  conceived  design  of  shoving  that  letter 
under  the  lid  out  of  sight  as  soon  as  she  could  slip  away. 
"  If  he  saw  it,  he  might  make  a  fuss,  and  what's  the  use  ?  " 
she  thought. 

"  Yes.  He  was  worrying  ahout  business  like  everybody 
else.  I  don't  believe  in  that  myself.  If  a  thing  falls 
through,  why,  don't  stand  around  and  hold  a  wake  over  it. 
Start  something  else !  "  said  Levison  briskly.  "  Take  our 
own  case.  In  uncertain  times  the  show  business  is  the 
first  to  feel  the  bad  effects,  and  gets  hit  the  hardest.  Eight 
now  you'd  think  Broadway  was  — "  he  made  an  expressive 
gesture  — "  '  Ring  the  bell  softly ;  there's  crape  on  the 
door ! '  "  he  declaimed  with  burlesque  solemnity.  "  You 
can't  hardly  find  your  way  into  our  office ;  there's  a  dense 
black  cloud  of  gloom  in  there  that  used  to  be  Abe  Rosen 
berg  !  I'm  glad  I'm  home,  and  say,  listen,  maybe  I  didn't 
do  some  hustling  yesterday !  You  know  I  wired  you  I 
had  a  scheme  — "  and  having  thus,  in  a  measure,  prepared 
their  minds,  Sandra's  manager  proceeded  to  divulge  the 
result  of  his  observations  and  activities  to  his  stunned  and 
silent  audience.  If  the  war  lasted  any  time,  if  it  went 
through  the  winter,  say  —  and  it  might,  there  was  no 
telling  —  he  wouldn't  be  surprised  a  little  bit  if  "  Hey- 
Diddle-Diddle  "  went  on  the  rocks,  and  the  Marionettes 
closed  up.  Anyhow  the  Rosenbergs  wouldn't  put  any  more 
money  into  it  than  they  could  help.  In  hard  times  there 
wasn't  anything  in  a  high-priced  show;  the  cheap  ones, 
the  two-a-day  and  the  movies  coined  money;  people  want 
to  be  amused  but  not  at  two  dollars  and  a  half  a  throw. 
Believe  him,  there  would  be  a  lot  of  Mrs.  Fiskes  and  John 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  307 

Drews  leaving  their  watches  to  be  regulated  this  winter! 
(Here  Mr.  Levison  screwed  up  one  eye  with  an  effect  of 
diabolical  significance.)  The  marrow  of  all  this  was  that 
Sandra  was  to  leave  the  cast  of  "  Hey-Diddle-Diddle  " ; 
he  had  made  a  ten- weeks'  engagement  for  her  to  dance 
nightly  at  "  Aladdin's  Palace."  That  was  a  sure  thing 
anyhow ;  and  by  the  time  the  ten  weeks  were  up  — "  some 
thing  will  happen  over  in  Europe  —  something  decisive's 
got  to  happen  before  long;  they  can't  keep  it  up  at  this 
rate.  And  then  we'll  all  know  where  we're  at,"  he  finished 
confidently,  and  looked  at  Sandra  with  an  indescribable 
mingling  of  deference  and  complacent,  vindicated  self- 
assert  iveuess,  feeling  that  he  had  demonstrated  beyond 
question  the  reality  and  the  scope  of  his  power. 

He  did  not  suspect  how  little  Sandra  was  inclined  to 
doubt  it ;  she  exaggerated,  if  anything,  telling  herself  that 
he  had  made  and  could  unmake  her,  and  submissively 
accepting  the  figures  he  presently  laid  before  her,  as  if  she 
had  no  will  or  desire  of  her  own  in  the  matter  —  a  mari 
onette  indeed ! 

"  It  doesn't  make  any  difference  where  I  dance,"  she 
said,  with  a  perfunctory  glance  at  the  formal  phrases  in 
which  Alexandra  Boardmau,  designated  hereinafter  as  the 
party  of  the  first  part,  did  hereby  agree  with  Lewis  Schaff- 
ner  and  Co.,  designated  hereinafter  as  the  party  of  the 
second  part,  for  and  in  consideration  of  the  sum  of  etc., 
etc.  "  Do  I  sign  here  ?  " 

"  Oh,  '  Aladdin's  Palace '  is  all  right,"  said  Max  ear 
nestly.  "  Schaffner's  don't  run  anything  but  high-class 
entertainments.  Rosenbergs'  don't  either,"  he  added  with 
loyalty ;  "  but  I  didn't  want  you  hiking  all  over  the  coun 
try  on  the  Circuit;  it's  killing  work,  and  I  couldn't  trail 
along  after  you  —  I've  got  to  stay  right  here  with  the  job. 
It's  funny,  in  boom  times  when  everything  is  humming 


308  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

and  you  have  to  increase  the  office-force  and  there's  a  dozen 
people  waiting  in  the  outside  room  to  see  you  when  you 
get  down  in  the  morning,  why,  you  take  a  day  off  whenever 
you  feel  like  it ;  you  loaf  around  and  play  pool  after  lunch, 
and  go  to  the  races  or  the  ball-game,  and  everybody's 
happy.  And  when  money's  tight,  and  everybody's  scared, 
and  the  Street's  dead,  and  you  can  sit  at  your  desk  from 
morning  to  night  without  seeing  a  soul  —  why,  that's  just 
when  you  stick  to  business  the  hardest.  You're  afraid  to 
leave  the  office  a  second  for  fear  something  good'll  get  by ! 
Say,  listen  —  wait  a  minute  — -  you  don't  have  to  sign. 
You  —  you  — "  he  hesitated  with  an  embarrassed  yet  con 
fidential  glance  towards  the  others,  and  finally  ended: 
"  you  don't  have  to  do  anything  you  don't  want." 

"  Oh,  I'll  sign,"  said  Sandra,  evading  his  hand,  which 
visibly  lingered  at  her  touch,  and  seizing  hold  of  the  pen 
rather  feverishly. 

"  She's  not  quite  old  enough  to  retire  yet,"  Everett  said 
with  his  caressing  raillery. 

There  was  an  infinitesimal  pause  while  Sandra's  pen 
scratched,  and  Levison  gave  her  brother  an  enigmatic, 
fleeting  survey.  "  She's  old  enough  anyhow  to  know  her 
own  mind.  I  don't  want  to  put  on  any  pressure,"  he  said, 
slightly  emphasizing  the  pronoun,  and  spoke  to  Sandra 
again.  "  You  won't  have  anything  to  do  with  the  other 
attractions,  of  course,  any  more  than  you  did  in  '  Bo-Peep.' 
I'll  be  right  there." 

Behind  her  back,  Mary  made  some  signal  which  Everett, 
although  they  had  had  no  previous  understanding,  was  too 
well  versed  in  social  strategy  to  let  escape  him ;  a  moment 
after  she  had  unostentatiously  left  the  room,  he  unosten 
tatiously  lounged  out  after  her. 

"  She  wanted  us  to  stick  around,  but  he  ought  to  have 
some  show,"  said  the  girl  in  a  guarded  voice,  once  they 


THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY  309 

were  both  outside ;  she  was  moved  mainly  by  certain  selfish 
considerations,  but  to  do  her  justice  in  part  also  by  that 
sympathy  with  the  masculine  lover  which  is  natural  to 
women.  Everett  nodded  silently.  And  though  neither 
one  said  a  word  or  would  have  owned  to  it,  both  were 
asking  inwardly  the  same  question :  what  was  Sandra  going 
to  get  out  of  him  for  Everett  ?  She  would  surely  get  some 
thing  out  of  him  in  return  for  —  for  —  Very  likely  they 
did  not  name  even  to  themselves  the  probable  terms  of  the 
bargain. 

The  room  was  still  for  a  second  after  the  door  closed. 
"  My  God !  I  thought  they  never  would  go !  "  ejaculated 
Levison,  and  laughed  nervously  and  moved  nearer  to  her. 
"  Say,  it's  —  it's  all  right,  little  girl  ?  " 

"  Why  —  I  —  yes.     Only  —  not  right  away,  please  !  " 

"  I  thought  you'd  say  that !  That's  just  what  I  thought 
you'd  say !  "  said  Levison,  laughing  again,  this  time  in 
genuine  mirth;  and  in  relief  and  triumph  and  sheer  de 
light.  He  boldly  put  an  arm  around  her,  and  drew  her 
to  him.  '  Not  right  away!  '  "  he  mimicked  her  fondly, 
chuckling.  "  All  right !  I'm  a  pretty  good  guesser  — 
what  ?  That's  the  reason  I  fixed  up  that  engagement  with 
Lew  Shaffner." 

"  I'd  like  to  —  to  make  some  more  money  before  — 
before  -  "  the  girl  stammered,  holding  him  off.  "  I  feel 
as  if  I  ought  to,  you  know." 

"  Sure !  You  don't  want  to  keep  on  stage  work  after 
we're  married.  Say,  listen,  I  wouldn't  have  said  a  word, 
but  I'd  have  hated  like  sin  to  have  my  wife  on  the  stage. 
Like  I  couldn't  support  her!  I'd  have  hated  it,  but  if 
you'd  wanted  to,  you'd  never  have  heard  a  yip  out  of  me. 
But  —  now  —  when  —  ?  " 

"  And  —  and  Everett  —  Mr.  Levison  —  ?  " 

"  Oh,  say  Max ;  can't  you,  girlie  ?  "     He  lifted  her  hand 


310  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

to  his  lips  —  to  the  shoebrush  moustache !  "  Well,  what 
about  Everett  ?  Can't  let  business  alone,  can  you  ?  "  he 
asked  with  facetious  patience.  "  Has  he  blown  ?  I  mean 
has  the  movie-man  let  him  go?  Huh?  Is  that  it?  I 
suppose  Solomons  took  his  address  and  told  him  he'd  let 
him  know  when  he  might  want  him  again.  Hey  ?  Well, 
can't  all  of  us  be  Charlie  Chaplins,  you  know." 

"But  can't  you  — ?" 

"  My  God,  yes !  I'll  do  anything  you  want,  if  you'll 
just  stop  talking  about  everybody  but  us  —  us  —  you  and 
me  —  for  a  while.  Say  — !  "  And  here  Mr.  Levison, 
still  holding  Sandra's  pliant,  slim  body  against  his  side 
with  one  arm,  unconscious  of  the  kind  of  latent  resistance 
that  animated  it,  fished  in  his  waistcoat  pocket  with  the 
free  hand.  "  Let  me  put  it  on.  Well,  I  knew  it  would 
be  too  big  for  you,  but  you  can  see  what  it's  going  to  look 
like,  anyhow.  We  can  measure  your  finger  with  a  string, 
and  I'll  take  it  back  to  town  with  me,  and  have  the  jeweller 
cut  a  piece  out,  so  it'll  fit.  Some  stone,  hey?  I  got  it 
from  a  man  I  know;  cost  him  eight  hundred  dollars. 
Well,  he's  a  gambler,  but  he  was  telling  me  the  truth.  He 
knew  he  couldn't  fool  me  on  diamonds.  I  only  gave  him 
two-fifty  —  two  hundred  and  fifty,  I  mean,  of  course.  He 
needed  the  money.  He  got  off  a  line  of  talk  about  hating 
to  part  with  it,  and  only  doing  it  to  oblige  me,  on  account 
of  being  such  friends  —  I've  heard  all  of  it  before.  He 
finally  let  it  go  for  two-fifty  —  meant  to  all  along,  I  guess. 
He  had,  to  have  the  money,"  said  Sandra's  lover  —  her 
affianced  lover !  —  not  without  considerable  self-satisfac 
tion.  Tor  an  instant  he  held  her  hand,  turning  the  great 
glaring  ring,  which,  in  fact,  was  much  too  large,  round 
and  round  on  her  finger.  He  looked  at  her  with  scared, 
eager  eyes,  his  breath  coming  short.  "  Say,  listen,  let  me 
—  let  me  kiss  you  ?  Just  once  ?  " 


CHAPTEE  XII 

« *  T  TE  Y-DIDDLE-DIDDLE  "  opened  in  October  with 
[  the  noise  and  glitter,  the  resounding  press-notices, 
and  the  actual  or  marvellously  simulated  warmth  of  wel 
come  which  attended  all  Marionettes'  openings.  Levison, 
however,  sentimentally  preoccupied,  was  far  too  earnest  a 
business  man  to  "  overlook  any  bets  "  as  he  himself  said ; 
he  spared  no  effort  to  make  the  new  piece  a  success,  spite 
of  the  gloomy  expectations  he  had  voiced  to  Sandra.  Con 
trariwise  also,  the  Eosenbergs  produced  it  upon  as  spacious 
and  sumptuous  a  scale  as  their  other  ventures;  and  the 
public,  forgetting  financial  woes  or  seeking  distraction 
from  them,  continued  to  crowd  the  theatre  nightly,  just  as 
if  there  were  no  war  and  —  alas !  —  as  if  there  never  had 
been  any  Sandra. 

However,  none  of  the  journals  omitted  to  note  that  that 
popular  favourite  had  gone  over  to  Aladdin's  Palace,  and 
"  scored  a  triumph."  She  might  not  be  missed  at  the 
Marionettes,  but  she  was  vociferously  asserted  to  be  an 
invaluable  addition  to  Aladdin's  staff  of  "  attractions." 
She  had  her  own  stage-setting,  especially  designed  by  — 
let  us  say  —  Mr.  Parrishfield  Max,  with  orange-coloured 
velvet  curtains,  marble  columns,  gigantic  gilded  baskets 
of  fruit,  and  a  background  of  pine-boughs  framing  a  mys 
tic  sunrise  —  or  sunset.  There  were  half  a  dozen  dances, 
all  new,  with  new  costumes,  new  music,  new  effects  in  illu 
mination,  new  everything  except  the  artist.  Levison  saw 
to  all  that,  too:  he  outdid  himself  in  advertising  devices, 

311 


312  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

perhaps  feeling  a  little  on  his  mettle,  ambitious  of  vindi 
cation  in  the  eyes  of  the  Rosenbergs,  of  Schaffner  and 
Company,  of  Sandra  herself.  It  is  only  necessary  to  call 
to  mind  the  "  Cat-and-the-Fiddle "  dance,  the  (news 
paper)  rumpus  following  its  first  presentation,  the  (news 
paper)  claims  that  it  had  been  lifted  bodily  from  the  orig 
inal  scheme  of  "  Hey-Diddle-Diddle/'  the  (newspaper) 
rumours  of  legal  proceedings  in  consequence,  with  inter 
views  and  photographs  and  stray  anecdotes  —  I  say,  it  is 
only  necessary  to  recall  this  single  episode  to  realize  the 
extent  and  variety  and  potency  of  Mr.  Levison's  methods. 
Whatever  its  intrinsic  merit,  the  "  Cat-and-the-Fiddle " 
had  an  amazing  succes  de  curiosiie,  filling  scores  of  seats 
night  after  night,  and  bringing  the  Schaffner  management 
uncounted  dollars.  "  You  gotta  hand  it  to  Max !  "  his 
brothers  of  the  profession  observed  in  cynical  admiration. 
This  was  the  dance  in  which  Everett  appeared,  taking 
the  grotesque  role  of  the  Fiddle ;  as  conceived,  it  called  for 
certain  more  or  less  acrobatic  steps  and  gestures  which 
should  have  been  attractively  droll,  a  kind  of  humorous 
complement  to  Sandra's  performance  of  the  Cat.  A  very 
moderate  supply  of  intelligence  and  a  light  pair  of  heels 
would  have  sufficed,  one  would  think;  but  Everett,  though 
of  course  he  possessed  much  more  than  the  above  qualifica 
tions,  was  not  conspicuously  successful  in  the  part.  It 
bored  him;  he  said  that  it  was  clowning,  not  dancing, 
which,  perhaps,  was  correct ;  and  he  went  through  it  with 
a  slow  and  monotonous  elegance  which  would  have  blighted 
the  entire  act,  had  it  not  been  for  Levison's  ingenious 
efforts,  and  for  Sandra  herself.  She  frisked  about  in  a 
furry  costume  with  a  bell  and  ribbon  around  her  neck, 
and  a  cap  finished  off  with  little  ears  which  the  women 
in  the  audience  —  who  were  always  in  a  great  majority, 
being  her  most  fervent  admirers  —  voted  altogether  cute 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  313 

and  darling.  Everett  was  negligible,  and  probably  pre 
ferred  to  be  so. 

"  He's  a  wonder ! "  Levison  said  sardonically.  "  I 
could  step  around  here  to  the  Marionettes  or  the  Twentieth 
Century  Review  and  shut  my  eyes  and  pick  a  dozen  fel 
lows  out  of  the  chorus  that  could  make  that  Fiddle  part  the 
biggest  hit  this  season.  There  ought  to  be  a  barrel  of 
money  in  it.  He  don't  hurt  the  act  to  speak  of ;  she's  the 
whole  thing  anyhow,  and  most  people  think  she  won't 
have  anybody  but  a  —  a  cheese  dancing  opposite  her,  so 
she  can  grab  all  the  applause.  They  think  it's  good  busi 
ness.  But  I  hate  to  see  a  good  chance  going  to  waste. 
Oh,  well,  what's  the  use  ?  "  And  in  the  same  philosophic 
spirit  he  refrained  from  advising  or  directing  the  young 
man,  except  in  the  matter  of  a  change  of  name  which  he 
declared  to  be  imperatively  necessary. 

" *  Everett,'  you  know,  it's  a  fine  name  all  right,  but  it 
won't  go  on  the  stage,"  he  said  firmly.  "  It's  —  well  — 
it's  too  fluffy  somehow,  if  you  don't  mind  my  saying  so. 
They  stick  names  like  that  onto  all  the  simp-parts  in  the 
movie-plays.  It's  got  so  that  every  time  the  crowd  sees  a 
name  like  Everett  or  Percival  or  Montmorency,  they  think 
there's  a  laugh  coming.  You'll  have  to  call  yourself  some 
thing  else.  Sorry." 

"  No  occasion  for  apologies,  Mr.  Levison,"  said  the 
other.  "  My  name  won't  suffer  by  being  —  er  —  kept  out 
of  it.  How  about  Johnson  ?  Is  that  ordinary  enough  not 
to  raise  a  laugh  ?  " 

"  Yes,  that's  the  idea.  Johnson  —  Jackson  —  any 
thing  on  that  order  will  do  for  you,"  Levison  agreed  with 
an  innocent  readiness  which  it  may  be  Everett  misinter 
preted,  for  he  reddened,  glancing  suspiciously.  There 
was  nothing  at  which  one  could  take  offence  in  the  man 
ager's  cheerful  and  indifferent  countenance,  however;  so 


314  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

young  Mr.  Everett  Chase  Boardman  swallowed  his  an 
noyance  and  became,  not  Johnson  indeed,  but  Mr.  Chase 
Trever,  without  provoking  any  comment. 

"  Little  Everett  is  too  wise  to  start  anything  with  me," 
Levison  said  afterwards  with  a  species  of  good-humoured 
sneer.  "  Why,  I'm  his  meal-ticket !  " 

In  truth,  that  fact  was  perfectly  apparent  not  only  to 
Everett  but  to  the  entire  professional  circle  at  the  Palace. 
They  viewed  him  leniently,  understanding  the  footing  he 
occupied  and  too  used  to  the  spectacle  of  graceful,  useless 
appendages  to  wonder  at  or  condemn  him.  Not  a  few 
took  it  for  granted  that  he  was  Sandra's  husband;  but, 
upon  hearing  that  he  was  her  brother,  evinced  only  a  lan 
guid  surprise.  If  Levison  "  stood  for  "  him,  if  the  Schaff- 
ner  management  "  stood  for "  him,  it  was  no  affair  of 
theirs.  As  for  Sandra,  she  endeavoured  with  intermittent 
success,  not  to  think  about  Everett's  position  at  all,  and 
about  her  own  as  little  as  possible.  The  girl  achieved  a 
degree  of  callousness  by  working  desperately  hard,  with 
results  on  the  whole  satisfactory  even  to  her  exacting  con 
science.  The  work  proved  such  a  refuge  she  went  at  it 
with  an  abandon  which  heretofore  she  had  somewhat 
lacked  or  deliberately  held  in  check.  It  surprised  Levison 
and  moreover  moved  him  to  an  enthusiasm  as  much  com 
mercial  as  sentimental. 

"We  sure  have  to  take  that  honeymoon  trip  to  the 
other  side  this  spring,  little  girl,  war  or  no  war.  I'd  like 
to  have  'em  see  you.  What  do  you  know  about  that  ?  "• 
he  said,  amused  at  his  own  inconsistencies.  "  Not  to 
Paris,  of  course.  I  wouldn't  go  on  the  continent  with 
you,  even  to  the  places  where  there  isn't  any  fighting, 
like  Spain  or  Italy.  There  wouldn't  be  any  danger,  but 
we'd  be  likely  to  have  trouble  getting  around.  No,  I  may 
have  to  run  over  myself,  but  I  wouldn't  take  my  wife  any 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  315 

such  trip.  You  can  stay  in  London  and  have  a  good  time. 
I've  been  getting  word  from  'era,  and  they  all  say  the 
shows  are  running  full  blast,  and  to  come  along  with  what 
ever  I've  got.  Mrs.  Claude's  over  there  '  creating  a  fu 
rore,'  as  the  press-agent  lad  says.  You  could  give  her 
cards  and  spades.  I'm  beginning  to  feel  as  if  I'd  like  to 
show  'em  a  real  dancer." 

And  so  on  endlessly,  Sandra  sitting  by  in  assenting 
silence.  She  had  never  said  in  so  many  words  that  she 
would  marry  him  in  the  spring,  but  that  had  somehow 
come  to  be  the  understanding. 

"  You  aren't  just  rolling  me  along,  now,  honey  ?  "  Levi- 
son  once  demanded  in  sudden  suspicion.  "  You  wouldn't 
treat  a  man  like  that  ?  "  And  Sandra  reassured  him,  won 
dering  at  herself.  She  had  thought  Everett's  counsel  to 
temporize  contemptible,  but  what  else  was  she  doing? 

Meanwhile  the  war  went  on  with  a  succession  of  grisly 
surprises.  The  Emden  was  sunk;  Louvain  sacked;  the 
English  coast-towns  fired  on;  Antwerp  fell;  winter  set  in 
with  Poe-like  tales  from  the  trenches.  Relief-work  for  the 
war-stricken  countries  began.  All  kinds  of  committees 
organized  all  kinds  of  entertainments  to  which  all  kinds 
of  people  were  besought  to  contribute  their  services  in  the 
name  of  mercy.  Sandra  presently  found  herself,  as  in 
old  days,  appearing  with  other  professionals  and  many 
ambitious  amateurs  in  charity  vaudevilles  and  charity 
pageants  in  the  studios  or  private  houses  of  celebrities,  at 
theatres,  here,  there  and  everywhere.  There  were  the 
hordes  of  girls  and  young  men,  headlong,  heedless,  calling 
one  another  by  nicknames,  exchanging  shibboleth  only 
comprehended  by  themselves;  there  were  the  mothers 
wearily  and  heroically  gracious,  well-preserved,  beautifully 
dressed;  there  were  the  unobtrusive  fathers,  not  too  san 
guine  of  aspect,  congregating  together  in  the  background 


316  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

to  compare  notes  about  taxes,  the  price  of  raw  materials, 
the  orders  they  could  not  get,  the  other  orders  they  could 
not  fill;  there  were  the  hired  musical  directors,  the  hired 
stage-mechanics  bored  beyond  belief,  yet  assiduous.  All 
was  exactly  as  she  had  been  accustomed  to  it  five  years 
back  —  ten  years  back  —  her  whole  life.  The  very  man 
ner  towards  herself  of  mingled  envy  and  curiosity  and  dis 
trust  and  scrupulous  politeness  recalled  her  own  start- 
lingly.  Just  so  had  she  thought  and  talked  and  acted. 
She  would  overhear  them  sibilant  in  groups,  with  a  wary 
eye  cocked  in  her  direction.  "  She's  not  any  taller  than  I 
am.  I  stood  right  beside  her  — "  "  Thin !  Do  you  sup 
pose  it's  dancing  does  it ?  "  "I  wonder  if  she  ever  gives 
lessons  — "  "  I  heard  — "  "  Oh,  no,  Nannie ;  she's  per 
fectly  decent.  Father  says  so.  Mother  made  him  make 
inquiries,  and  men  always  Tcnow  — "  "  Yes,  but  they 
don't  always  tell  you  — "  "  Married  ?  "  "  Did  you  see 
those  furs  she  had  on  yesterday  ?  " —  "  Why,  she  speaks 
English  perfectly  —  "  Tom  Harris  says  we  ought  to 
have  got  Maizie  de  Forest,  that  one  that's  dancing  at  the 
Roof.  He  says  she's  ever  so  much  better  than  this  one 
and  besides  she's  new.  Everybody's  seen  this  one  over 
and  over  again  — " 

Sandra  moved  away,  contriving  to  look  as  if  she  had 
heard  nothing  with  a  skill  which  should  have  testified  to  a 
long  course  of  social  training,  had  any  of  them  been  ob 
servant  enough  to  remark  it.  But  nobody  did;  it  never 
occurred  to  a  single  one  of  these  honest  young  folks  that 
she  could  be  a  gentlewoman;  the  fact  would  go  to  show 
that  gentility  is  not  so  unmistakable  as  Mrs.  Richard 
Boardman,  for  instance,  would  have  contended.  By 
turns,  Sandra  resented  her  isolation  or  was  glad  of  it,  or 
pitied  herself,  or  merely  laughed.  There  were  times 
when  it  seemed  to  her  fantastically  that  they  were  the 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  317 

show,  these  people ;  they  were  the  real  performers,  mounte 
banks,  and  she  the  audience. 

All  this  winter  she  did  not  see  Sam,  which  was  odd,  as 
New  York  being  headquarters  for  the  business  he  was  con 
stantly  dodging  in  and  out  of  town  and  heretofore  had  not 
once  failed  to  come  or  telephone.  Neither  did  he  write. 
Sandra  was  frightened  to  find  out  how  much  she  missed 
him,  how  much  she  feared  that  he  had  heard  the  only  piece 
of  news  which  could  keep  him  away.  The  dismal  cer 
tainty  that  he  had  was  gradually  forcing  itself  upon  her 
some  while  before  Mary  casually  mentioned  one  day  hav 
ing  met  Mr.  Thatcher.  "  He  wanted  to  be  remembered  to 
you,  and  said  he  sent  you  both  his  best  wishes,"  said  Mary. 

"  Best  wishes,"  Sandra  repeated  mechanically.  Then 
she  collected  herself  with  an  effort.  "How  did  he 
know  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  Why,  I  told  him,  of  course.  But  he'd  heard  some 
thing  already,  because  he  asked  the  minute  he  saw  me. 
Just  think!  He's  been  over  there  again.  He  went  to 
England  and  then  he  went  to  Russia.  He  says  he's  going 
again  this  spring.  I  said :  '  Oh,  Mr.  Thatcher,  I  should 
think  you'd  be  afraid.  Being  on  the  ocean  is  bad  enough 
anyhow,  and  now  they're  saying  they're  going  to  go  after 
all  the  ships  they  think  have  arms  and  things  for  the 
Allies  on  them  and  any  ship  might  have.'  He  said  he 
guessed  that  was  all  blow.  "  '  Well,'  "  I  says,  "  '  Just  the 
same  they're  warning  people  not  to  go  over.' '  I  thought 
that  was  pretty  fair  of  the  Germans.  Of  course  they  don't 
really  want  to  hurt  people  that  aren't  trying  to  hurt  them. 
But  Mr.  Thatcher  just  looked  sort  of  square- jawed,  that 
way  he  does  sometimes,  and  said  he  didn't  think  warning 
innocent  people  that  were  minding  their  own  business 
justified  murdering  'em  if  they  didn't  take  the  warning. 
He  said  the  Black  Hand  warned  people.  And  then  he 


318  THE  BOAKDMAIST  FAMILY 

says:  "'  Anyhow,'"  he  says,  "'  Seems  to  me  I'd  be  a 
pretty  poor  citizen  if  I  took  orders  from  any  government 
but  my  own ! '  Isn't  that  just  like  him,  though  ?  Well, 
there're  always  two  sides  to  every  question,"  Mary  summed 
up. 

"  You  didn't  need  to  have  told  him,"  said  Sandra. 

"  Told  him  what  ?  Oh,  about  you  and  Mr.  Levison. 
Why,  it  isn't  any  secret,"  said  Mary,  with  wide-open  eyes. 

"  No,  but  —  something  might  happen  — " 

"  Something  might  happen  ?  "  Mary  echoed ;  after  an 
instant,  she  began  to  laugh  in  a  knowing  fashion,  "  Oh,  I 
see!" 

"  No,  you  don't  —  you  don't  see  at  all,"  cried  out  San 
dra  vehemently.  "  Of  course  I  am  going  to  marry  Mr. 
Levison.  I'm  not  just  —  I  mean  I  haven't  the  least  idea 
of  —  of  anything  else.  I  —  I  —  it's  not  the  way  you 
think  at  all  — "  she  kept  on  protesting,  conscious  that  this 
very  insistence  was  a  betrayal,  fairly  hating  Mary  for  her 
ready  acquiescence,  her  ingenuous  disclaimers,  her  amused, 
admiring,  unconvinced  eyes. 

The  news  of  the  British  naval  victory  off  the  Falkland 
Islands  came  as  a  distinct  relief  to  numbers  of  worthy 
persons  interested  in  the  shipping  and  allied  industries 
all  over  the  United  States.  By  that  time  the  entire  com 
munity  was  divided  into  two  camps,  pro-Allies  and  pro- 
German  ;  friendships  were  undergoing  a  severe  strain,  but 
business  relations  continued  comparatively  undisturbed; 
and  most  people  agreed  that  to  have  the  seas  swept  free  of 
raiders  and  of  a  fleet  of  warships  with  which  a  chance 
encounter  would  certainly  prove  exceedingly  inconvenient 
to  any  merchantman,  was  on  the  whole,  reassuring,  no 
matter  with  which  party  you  sided.  Ocean-travel  was 
safe  now,  one  said  to  another ;  not  that  a  man  would  let  his 
wife  and  daughters  go  to  Europe  for  the  summer  as  here- 


THE  BOARDMAJST  FAMILY  319 

tofore,  of  course;  there  would  be  no  fun  in  going  now 
adays,  anyhow ;  but  running  across  on  a  business  trip  was 
no  longer  a  serious  risk,  and  business  was  showing  signs 
of  vitality  at  last  after  six  moribund  months.  If  there 
was  a  dark  significance  about  the  fact  that  the  revival  was 
earliest  and  strongest  among  the  munitions  and  army- 
supplies  trades,  it  went  unnoticed  by  common  consent.  To 
most  minds  the  United  States  had  neither  part  nor  lot  in 
the  struggle;  our  dearest  wish  was  to  keep  out  of  it;  but 
since  it  was  going  to  go  on  with  or  without  us,  what  harm 
in  profiting  by  it?  The  war  was  horrible,  the  cases  of 
Belgium,  of  Servia,  of  Poland  (though  probably  reports 
were  grossly  exaggerated),  were  horrible,  but  we  were  do 
ing  what  we  could  for  the  sufferers,  and  we  ourselves  were 
incredibly  safe  and  presently  would  be  incredibly  pros 
perous. 

Mr.  Max  Levison  was  one  of  the  heartiest  subscribers  to 
the  above  opinions ;  for  that  matter  he  had  never  been  dis 
posed  to  trouble  his  head  much  over  the  rights  and  wrongs 
of  the  quarrel,  and  would  agree  with  the  last  man  who 
talked  about  it  rather  than  take  time  to  argue.  "  Nobody 
really  knows  what  the  mix-up  is  about ;  but  they  all  want  to 
tell  me,"  he  would  say  with  a  grin.  "  I'm  the  only  real 
neutral  there  is." 

"  Maybe  that's  because  you  haven't  any  real  country, 
Mr.  Levison,"  Everett  Boardman  once  suggested.  Ev 
erett,  as  was  becoming  and  natural  to  one  of  his  name  and 
lineage,  championed  the  cause  of  the  Allies  at  the  begin 
ning,  and  could  plead  it  very  convincingly,  keeping  himself 
well-informed  and  marshalling  his  dates  and  facts,  which 
were  always  accurate,  with  no  little  skill. 

"  Hey  ?  What  d'ye  mean,  '  no  real  country  '  ?  "  de 
manded  Levison,  astonished.  "  I'm  just  as  good  United 
States  as  anybody  —  oil !  "  his  face  changed  slightly,  but 


320  THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY 

it  was  without  resentment  that  he  added :  "  I  get  you. 
Well,  I  guess  that's  so,  only  I  never  thought  of  it  that  way 
before.  My  father  came  from  somewhere  over  there,  Bo 
hemia  or  some  place  like  that  —  I  never  did  know  just 
where ;  he  probably  didn't  like  it  any  too  well,  or  he'd  have 
talked  about  it  more.  I  was  born  over  here;  though,  and 
you  bet  I'm  glad  of  it !  Sometimes  they  start  something 
about  all  the  Jewish  people  going  back  to  Palestine  where 
they  came  from  originally  —  funny  idea !  "  He  wagged 
his  head.  "  Me  for  Broadway !  " 

He  had  renewed  Sandra's  engagement  at  the  Palace  to 
run  till  the  first  of  March.  Then,  if  they  sailed  in  April, 
she  would  have  a  month  in  which  to  — "  rest  up  a  little 
and  get  some  things,  and  —  go  out  to  see  your  folks,  you 
know,"  he  said  tentatively.  The  truth  was,  honest  Max 
took  it  for  granted  that  it  was  the  part,  in  fact  the  preroga 
tive,  of  the  bride  to  make  all  these  decisions  and  arrange 
ments;  most  of  the  grooms  he  had  ever  had  to  do  with 
needed  only  to  buy  a  license  and  a  ring.  He  would  have 
liked  Sandra  to  show  more  excitement  and  more  desire  to 
have  her  own  way ;  but  set  her  attitude  down  to  the  teach 
ings  of  the  refined  circles  to  which  she  belonged,  where,  he 
understood,  a  supreme  self-control  was  manifested  by 
everybody  under  all  circumstances.  "  You  —  I  hope  you 
haven't  got  any  plan  about  a  big  wedding  in  your  home 
town  ?  "  he  inquired  with  a  trepidation  that  was  only  half 
burlesque.  "  Bridesmaids  and  pearl  stick-pins  for  me  to 
give  the  ushers  and  —  shower-bouquets  and  all  that  stuff 
like  in  the  society  papers  ?  " 

"  Mercy,  no !  "  said  Sandra  aghast ;  then  giving  way  to 
hysterical  laughter.  She  checked  herself  in  fear  of  his 
divining  why  she  was  horrified  and  why  amused.  "  I  hate 
all  that  fuss  and  always  have,"  she  explained  hastily  and 
untruthfully.  "  I've  been  bridesmaid  two  or  three  times 


THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY  321 

and  it's  always  the  same  old  thing  and  tiresome  as  can  be." 

"  Well,  a  society-girl  like  you  —  you  know  all  about  it. 
I  thought  maybe  that  was  what  you  wanted,"  said  Levison, 
taking  obvious  pride  and  pleasure  in  the  statement.  "  Far 
as  I'm  concerned,  any  justice  of  the  peace  right  here  — " 

"Oh,  I  don't  think  —  I  wouldn't  feel  —  it  wouldn't 
seem  like  being  married  at  all,"  said  Sandra,  shrinking. 
She  had  not  been  inside  a  church  for  two  or  three  years, 
and  her  beliefs  were  too  vague  to  deserve  the  name;  yet 
the  idea  of  marriage  otherwise  than  by  the  Episcopal  ritual 
inexpressibly  repelled  her. 

"  All  right,  all  right,  just  as  you  say !  "  said  Levison, 
still  more  pleased.  "  You're  the  one  to  decide.  Only 
you  aren't  a  Roman  Catholic,  are  you?  Episcopalian, 
hey?  I  thought  they  were  pretty  much  the  same  thing. 
They've  got  Episcopal  churches  all  over  and  a  minister 
for  every  one,  of  course.  Got  any  preference?  I'll  put 
his  name  down." 

He  had  out  notebook  and  pencil  on  the  instant,  as  usual, 
but  Sandra,  realizing  wretchedly  that  with  another  word 
she  would  be  cornered,  played  a  desperate  card. 

"  Oh,  but  I  thought  —  that  is,  I  was  planning  some 
thing  else.  I  thought  it  would  be  so  nice  to  have  it  over 
there  —  in  London  —  in  one  of  those  English  churches. 
It  would  be  so  different,  you  know  — " 

Levison's  features  expressed  not  so  much  disappoint 
ment  as  stark  surprise ;  he  opened  his  mouth  to  hint  at  cer 
tain  obstacles  which  even  his  not  highly  conventional  train 
ing  caused  him  to  recognize,  but  Sandra  forestalled  him. 

"  Everett  wants  to  go,  and  I  meant  to  take  Mary  any 
how.  I  wouldn't  want  to  stay  anywhere  all  by  myself 
while  you  were  off  on  business,"  she  said  with  feverish 
glibness.  "  Don't  you  think  it  would  be  —  would  be  in 
teresting  ? " 


322  THE  EOARDMAN  FAMILY 

Notwithstanding  sundry  other  emotions  confused  and 
inharmonious  but  none  of  them  in  the  least  approaching 
amusement,  Levison  laughed  at  that  last  word.  "  '  Inter 
esting  ' !  You  can't  beat  that !  It  sounds  like  a  line  out 
of  one  of  those  old  comic-operas  Gilbert  and  Sullivan  used 
to  get  up.  Say,  listen,  what's  your  idea  of  a  honeymoon, 
anyhow  ?  I  was  thinking  it  would  be  kind  of  i  interest 
ing  '  to  go  over  us  two  all  to  ourselves.  Of  course,  little 
Miss  Schultze  is  about  like  a  chair  or  a  steamer-rug.  She 
wouldn't  be  in  the  way,  but  your  brother  — " 

"  She  won't  go  a  step  unless  he  does." 

"  Well,  let  'em  both  stay  at  home,  then !  "  said  Levison 
roundly.  "  Let's  us  be  married  right  here.  Come  on ! 
I  can't  imagine  what  put  that  London  bug  into  your  head. 
Come  on !  We'd  have  lots  of  fun  going  over,"  he  pleaded. 

"  No,  we  wouldn't !  Everybody  would  know  we  were 
a  bride  and  groom,  and  it  would  be  awful  anyhow.  You 
don't  know.  I'm  —  a  perfectly  wretched  sailor.  If  it 
should  happen  to  be  the  least  bit  rough  —  that's  one  reason 
I  wanted  to  have  Mary  — "  Sandra  was  urging,  when  she 
saw  the  discontent  and  impatience  of  her  lover's  face  dis 
solve  in  laughter  that  was  whole-hearted  enough  this  time. 

"  Oh,  I  see !  Well,  it's  not  very  becoming.  I'm  never 
sick  a  minute  myself  —  eat  like  a  shark,"  he  asserted  with 
the  pride  all  such  hardy  voyagers  invariably  take  in  the 
statement.  "  I  bob  right  up  when  there's  nobody  in  the 
dining-room  but  me,  and  even  the  stewards  look  green 
around  the  gills.  Say,  it  is  funny ;  you  can't  help  laugh 
ing  to  save  your  life." 

"  I'd  hate  it !  "  said  Sandra  with  vehemence. 

"  Sure !  But  we'll  take  the  biggest  and  fastest  boat  we 
can  get.  You  get  over  in  five  days,  and  you  don't  feel 
the  motion  at  all  hardly.  I  mean  one  of  the  palm-room, 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  323 

Ritz  service,  seven-deck,  dress-suit-every-evening  kind. 
You'd  like  that  —" 

Sandra  stood  firm,  however,  exhibiting  for  the  first  time 
the  sweet  petulance  and  unreasonableness  and  obstinacy 
which,  in  his  heart,  poor  Levison  yearned  for.  "  You  just 
boss  me  around  like  a  slave.  I  see  my  finish  after  we're 
married,"  he  sighed  delightedly.  "  All  right !  Have  it 
your  own  way !  Don't  want  to  take  over  any  more  of  the 
family  and  a  friend  or  two,  do  you  ?  Well,  I  didn't  know 
—  thought  you  might.  With  seventeen  trunks  and  the  dog 
and  Everett  and  little  Mary  and  me,  a  few  more  wouldn't 
make  much  difference.  The  procession  will  be  five  hours 
passing  a  given  point  anyhow.  There's  one  thing;  it 
won't  be  anything  new  to  the  steamship  company. 
They're  used  to  all  the  Metropolitan  stars  and  the  other 
big  foreign  artists  travelling  around  with  just  such  a 
string.  Most  of  the  tenors  and  the  prima-donna  ladies 
manage  to  slip  something  about  it  to  the  papers,  too. 
That's  not  such  a  bad  idea,  either,"  he  ended  meditatively. 

And  accordingly  Sandra  was  not  surprised  to  read  a 
few  days  later  that  "  the  famous  little  dancer,  at  the  con 
clusion  of  her  season  at  Aladdin's  Palace  (the  new  Schaff- 
ner  enterprise)  would  sail  for  England  with  her  own  com 
pany.  She  was  under  contract  to  dance  at  the  Metro 
politan  Arcade,"  etc.  Nothing  was  said  about  what  else 
was  to  happen.  "  You  don't  want  the  public  ever  to  get 
wind  of  anything  of  that  kind.  You  want  to  keep  'em 
guessing  —  they  like  to  guess  and  to  get  up  stories,"  Levi 
son  said.  "  But  on  the  whole  they'd  rather  a  stage  favour 
ite  wasn't  married  —  particularly  a  dancer.  Queer  thing, 
but  it's  so.  You're  not  intending  to  stay  on  the  stage,  but 
a  person  never  can  tell." 


CHAPTER  XIII 

SANDRA  went  home  in  March,  following  out  Levi- 
son's  program  —  Levison,  of  whom  she  could  not 
bring  herself  to  say  a  word  during  the  entire  wreek  of 
her  stay!  Everett  must  have  kept  silence,  too,  though 
there  had  been  no  open  agreement  between  the  brother 
and  sister;  the  family  knew  nothing  about  the  engage 
ment.  Sandra's  mother  met  her  at  the  train  and  took  her 
out  to  the  house  in  the  smart  little  electric  brougham  the 
girl  herself  had  given  them.  They  were  tremendously 
excited  over  the  visit,  fonder  and  prouder  of  her  than 
ever,  but  with  a  strange  note  in  the  fondness  and  pride, 
a  kind  of  deference  that  was  infinitely  pathetic.  The 
older  people  were  a  little  afraid  of  her,  anxious  about 
her  likes  and  dislikes,  expectant  of  some  "  temperamental " 
outbursts.  They  asked  naive  questions  like  children,  and 
observed  small,  heart-breaking  formalities  which  they 
never  would  have  dreamed  of,  had  she  been  merely  their 
daughter,  instead  of  "  Sandra  "  who  was  known  all  over 
the  country,  who  made  fabulous  sums  a  year,  whose  dances, 
"  Will-o'-th'-Wisp,"  "  Tarantelle,"  "  Pierrette  "  were 
imitated  and  parodied  right  and  left,  who  —  for  a  climax ! 
—  had  set  a  fashion  of  hair-dressing,  and  had  an  out  of 
the  way  shade  of  tawny  yellow  named  after  her.  These 
things  amount  to  fame,  for  most  of  us,  and  fame,  somehow 
or  other,  is  not  expected  to  be  sociable  or  domestic. 

"  Yes,  I  was  going  to  give  a  little  tea  for  her,"  Mrs. 
Richard  explained ;  "  but  people  in  her  position  —  they 
get'  so  much  of  that  sort  of  thing,  you  know  —  they're 

324 


THE  BQAKDMAN  FAMILY  325 

being  lion-hunted  continually.  I  decided  not  to,  after 
Sandra  told  me  she  just  wanted  a  little  quiet  time  here 
at  home  with  ourselves  and  some  of  her  oldest  friends,  to 
say  good-bye  before  she  sails.  Oh,  of  course  she  will  be 
delighted  to  see  you,  but  don't  bring  anybody  else,  and 
don't  say  anything  to  her  about  her  dancing  or  her  career. 
Everybody  always  begins  at  once  on  that,  and  I  sup 
pose  they  —  I  mean  artists  like  Sandra  —  get  really 
bored  to  death  with  it." 

However,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  entertaining;  small 
dinners,  and  Mr.  Donelson  Meigs  gave  one  of  his  delight 
ful  studio  parties.  No  dances,  of  course.  "  None  of  the 
men  would  have  the  nerve  to  ask  you  even  for  a  one-step ! 
And  anyhow  I  should  think  the  best  kind  of  vacation  you 
could  have  would  be  not  to  hear  a  single  bar  of  dance- 
music  the  whole  time  you're  here,"  one  uncommonly  out 
spoken  friend  ventured  to  tell  her.  Sandra's  set  of 
debutantes  was  all  broken  up,  married,  scattered.  A 
dozen  sets  had  come  along  since  then,  to  whom  she  was 
simply  a  celebrity,  not  Alexandra  Boardman.  She  moved 
amongst  them,  here  in  this  place  which  had  been  her  home, 
still  isolated  within  her  charmed  circle  of  footlights, 
grease-paint,  publicity,  like  as  she  thought,  recalling  some 
old  fairy-tale,  the  princess  enchanted  in  the  crystal  box;  or, 
she  had  another  and  weirder  fancy,  as  if  she  were  dead, 
and  in  an  impossible  detachment,  witnessing  her  own 
immortality.  Sometimes  she  had  to  answer  inquiries 
about  Everett,  but  not  often.  Sandra  knew  why;  she 
knew  that  all  these  people  were  commiserating  her  father 
and  mother  behind  their  backs  for  having  such  a  son  as 
Everett  —  such  a  disappointment !  Society,  including 
her  own  family,  had  grown  reconciled  to  her  being  on  the 
stage,  and  no  longer  felt  it  beneath  a  Boardman.  There 
is  no  occupation  —  hardly  even  a  dishonest  occupation 


326  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

—  that  may  not  be  dignified  by  success.  But  Everett  was 
no  more  successful  at  dancing  than  at  anything  else;  no 
body  imitated  him;  nobody  ever  read  his  name  on  a  bill 
board.  He  was  doing  exactly  what  she  did ;  but  obscurely, 
therefore  unbecomingly.  It  was  kindest,  most  tactful,  not 
to  mention  him!  If  they  only  knew  it,  the  root  of  the 
matter  was  that  there  had  never  been  any  Max  Levison 
for  Everett,  Sandra  thought  sardonically.  And  yet  there 
were  moments  when  she  told  herself  that  she  would  have 
come  to  her  own  in  time,  without  Levison;  it  would  have 
taken  longer,  there  would  have  been  less  tinsel  and 
trumpeting  about  it,  but  she  knew  she  could  dance.  At 
least  she  would  not  finally  have  got  into  this  miserable  en 
tanglement,  from  which  yet  she  lacked  the  strength  or 
spirit  to  break  away. 

She  went  back  to  New  York,  to  days  of  shopping  and 
packing  and  scurrying  to  and  fro.  Levison  haunted  the 
apartment,  rushing  in  at  all  hours,  excited  and  foolish  as 
a  boy,  bringing  her  presents,  fur-lined  slippers,  the  latest, 
most  complete  and  costly  camera  devised,  a  dressing-case 
of  royal-purple  crushed  leather,  scented,  brocade-lined, 
fitted  with  a  squad  of  gold-topped  bottles  — "  solid  gold  " 
he  told  her  impressively  —  new-fangled  folding  umbrellas 
and  hat-boxes,  innumerable  fripperies.  He  was  so  eager, 
so  buoyant,  so  happy  himself  and  so  sure  that  she  was 
happy,  that  the  spectacle  of  him  shamed  Sandra  to  the 
very  soul.  She  showed  the  things  to  Everett  experi 
mentally.  Her  brother,  who  also  was  quite  busy  provid 
ing  himself  with  little  niceties  in  the  purchase  of  which 
he  exercised  the  finest  taste  and  discrimination,  surveyed 
Levison' s  offerings  with  a  faint  displeasure. 

"  He  ought  to  know  better  than  to  crowd  all  those  ex 
pensive  things  on  you,  San.  It's  not  good  style.  And 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  327 

you  can't  accept  them  anyhow  —  at  least,  I  don't  sup 
pose  you  will.  It's  funny  that  after  all  this  while  he 
doesn't  realize  what  sort  of  a  girl  you  are.  Why  don't 
you  drop  him  a  gentle  hint?  Or  tell  him  outright  that 
that  kind  of  thing  isn't  done  among  nice  people." 

"  But  if  we're  engaged  —  ?  "  said  Sandra. 

Everett  gave  her  a  humorous  oblique  glance.  "  To  be 
sure,"  said  he  drily.  "  Something  might  happen,  though. 
It  would  save  lots  of  trouble,  according  to  what  I've  heard 
about  such  cases,  to  send  'em  back  now,  instead  of  later." 

"  Nothing  that  I  can  think  of  is  going  to  happen  to 
keep  us  from  being  married,"  said  Sandra  with  delibera 
tion. 

Everett  looked  startled  for  a  second,  then  he  smiled. 
"'Awf  g'wan!"  he  said,  quoting  a  Hey-Diddle-Diddle 
comedian  who  had  made  one  of  the  hits  of  the  season 
merely  by  the  frequent  enunciation  of  this  simple  phrase. 

It  was  a  raw  spring  day  when  they  sailed.  Levison 
came  around  to  the  apartment  in  the  morning  and  took 
Sandra  off,  leaving  the  others  to  follow  in  a  taxi  with 
the  dog  and  most  of  the  hand-baggage,  like  the  crew  of 
retainers  they  resembled.  It  was  an  arrangement  which 
Everett  may  not  have  greatly  fancied,  but  his  manners 
were  much  too  good  to  permit  of  his  openly  avoiding  it, 
or  making  the  semi-facetious,  semi-malicious  comments 
which  undoubtedly  occurred  to  him.  He  handed  Mary 
and  the  poodle  into  the  cab  and  took  his  place  beside  them 
with  the  air  of  doing  the  thing  of  his  choice  which  he 
knew  so  well  how  to  assume.  There  was  no  acting  on 
Mary's  side ;  she  was  always  timorously  happy  to  be  with 
him,  and  not  even  Pixy  himself  —  who  also  loved  and 
admired  Everett  with  the  whole  strength  of  his  canine 
heart  —  demanded  less  in  return,  or  showed  a  more  un- 


328  THE  B'OAKDMAN  FAMILY 

selfish  devotion.  Mary  took  care  not  to  be  so  demonstra 
tive  as  Pixy,  however;  she  had  found  out  that  the  hero 
did  not  like  it. 

At  the  pier  there  was  almost  as  much  of  a  crowd,  both 
of  travellers  and  of  stay-at-homes,  as  there  would  have 
been  in  past  days  before  anybody  was  dreaming  of  war. 
Passengers  went  down  and  found  their  quarters,  and  de 
posited  their  luggage  and  tipped  the  porters,  and  read  the 
little  notices  stuck  up  alongside  the  mirrors  directing  the 
occupant  of  that  stateroom  to  lifeboat  number  so-and-so, 
and  thought  of  the  Titanic,  it  may  be  with  a  slight  thrill. 
But  there  were  never  going  to  be  any  more  awful  ocean 
tragedies  like  that,  they  reflected ;  steamship  captains  were 
too  careful  nowadays,  since  that  lesson.  In  the  smoking- 
room  that  evening  Everett  told  Levison  with  a  laugh  that 
a  man  had  come  up  to  him  on  the  dock,  as  they  were 
all  crowding  into  line  to  go  on  board,  and  warned  him 
mysteriously  "  like  the  second  assistant  villain  in  a  melo 
drama  "  not  to  sail. 

"  Somebody  did  that  to  me,  too,"  another  passenger  said, 
overhearing  him. 

"  Is  that  so  ?  None  of  'em  took  the  pains  to  tip  me 
off,"  said  Levison,  in  mock  indignation.  "  There's  been 
a  serious  oversight.  I'll  have  to  notify  the  management. 
They've  been  warning  the  government  too,  I  understand. 
Say,  that's  a  great  bluff !  "  And  the  word  putting  him  in 
mind  of  a  favourite  recreation,  he  proposed  it  to  an 
acquaintance  or  two  whom  he  had  already  run  into  on 
board.  He  was  a  familiar  figure  on  the  decks  of  Atlantic 
liners,  as  in  the  theatrical  and  sporting  societies  of  half  a 
dozen  foreign  cities,  and  was  likely  to  happen  upon  some 
body  he  knew  in  almost  any  quarter  of  the  globe.  "  First 
thing  I  do  usually,  crossing,  is  to  start  a  game,  poker, 
auction,  whatever  I  can  get  up.  There's  nothing  like  it 


THE  BOAKDMAtf  FAMILY  329 

for  passing  the  time.  Only  I  guess  I  won't  have  so  much 
trouble  that  way  this  trip,"  he  said  to  Sandra  with  senti 
mental  significance. 

So,  although  Mr.  Levison  by  no  means  neglected  his 
card-table,  he  spent  the  better  part  of  the  days  with  Sandra 
whenever  she  was  visible,  fetching  and  carrying,  bribing 
the  stewards  magnificently  in  her  presence  to  do  this  or 
that  which  he  fancied  she  wanted  or  needed  done,  cuddling 
her  into  her  wraps  and  taking  her  to  walk  outside,  active, 
officious  and  lover-like  to  a  terrifying  degree.  Sandra 
submitted  lifelessly,  thankful  that,  at  least,  her  privacy 
was  not  invaded  by  fellow-passengers,  though  occasion 
ally  they  stared  and  whispered  together  when  she  ap 
peared.  In  twenty-four  hours  it  was  known  on  board  who 
was  the  slim,  foreign-looking  woman  with  the  big  black 
eyes  who  had  one  of  the  extravagant  suites  with  a  dog 
and  a  valet  and  a  maid  —  thus  Everett  and  Mary  figured ! 
—  and  was  to  be  seen  in  the  rare  sunshiny  hours,  buried 
in  furs,  promenading  with  the  unquestionably  Israelitish 
manager,  agent,  impresario,  whatever  you  chose  to  call 
him,  who  was  taking  her  over ;  there  was  always  somebody 
like  that  in  charge  of  those  people.  Presumably,  if  they 
were  not  thus  policed,  they  might  get  temperamental  and 
bite  a  purser's  ear  off,  or  smash  up  the  cabin  furniture! 
Sandra  was  used  to  stares  and  murmurings,  which  had 
long  ceased  to  annoy  her;  for  that  matter  she  had  never 
been  at  all  self-conscious.  She  was  reported  to  have  a 
most  gracious  and  charming  manner  by  the  few  who, 
adventuring  greatly,  spoke  to  her  —  a  young  girl  who 
asked  shyly  for  an  autograph,  a  lady  with  a  little  boy  who 
stopped  to  pat  the  poodle,  a  Pittsburgh  steel  millionaire 
going  over  to  close  a  contract  with  the  British  government ; 
Sandra  had  danced  at  a  Belgian  Relief  entertainment 
given  at  his  house  early  in  the  winter.  He  told  her  there 


330  THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY 

was  "  quite  a  —  er  —  a  galaxy,  as  you  might  say,  of  talent 
on  board.  Yourself,  to  begin  with,  and  then  there's  So- 
and  So,  and  Such-a-One,"  he  named  them,  winding  up 
with:  "Plenty  of  jobs  in  London  for  all  of  you  gifted 
people.  Seems  they're  crazy  for  entertainment  more  than 
ever  before,  and  no  wonder!  They  see  enough  of  the 
serious  side  of  things  in  all  conscience.  Must  have  some 
relaxation." 

And  Levison  coming  up  at  this  point,  the  steel  man  who 
knew  who  he  was,  uttered  a  brief  greeting,  and  got  up  and 
walked  off;  he  would  just  as  lief  be  seen  talking  to 
"  Sandra,"  but  probably  had  no  great  relish  for  her  man 
ager's  company  except  over  a  poker-hand  and  maybe  a 
Scotch-and-soda.  "  Told  you  it  would  be  just  as  com 
fortable  as  the  Biltmore,  now  didn't  I  ? "  said  Levison 
jubilantly,  taking  the  seat  the  other  vacated.  "  Say,  this 
is  the  boat  for  me!  Easiest  crossing  I  ever  made.  We 
struck  some  pretty  heavy  seas  last  night,  and  did  you 
notice  how  little  she  rolled  ?  None  of  that  swooping  down 
wards,  and  raising  the  screws  out  of  water,  so  that  they 
fairly  shake  the  teeth  out  of  your  head.  How's  things, 
anyhow  ?  Stewards  treating  you  all  right  ?  " 

"  Everybody  is  as  nice  as  can  be,"  Sandra  told  him 
quickly. 

"  Yeah,  I  expect  they  are.  I've  got  'em  all  fixed,"  said 
Levison  in  a  shrewd  and  competent  style. 

"  I  think  they'd  be  nice  anyhow.  They're  all  so 
English,  aren't  they?  That  little  man  with  the  crooked 
nose  —  have  you  seen  him  ?  He's  the  one  that  comes  with 
my  bouillon  every  morning  —  such  a  nice,  funny  little 
man.  And  such  an  English  accent !  '  Kound  the  Kipe 
—  the  Kipe  of  Good  'Ope,  mem,  that's  where  you  get  the 
followin'  seas/  he  told  me.  And  the  other  day  when  I 
asked  him  what  it  was  like  outside,  he  said  it  was  '  a  bit 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  331 

izy.'  I  had  to  think  awhile  before  it  dawned  on  me  that 
he  meant  hazy,  of  course." 

"  'Izy  ?  '  Oh,  yes,  hazy  —  ha-ha !  "  said  Levison  laugh 
ing  a  little  absently,  as  he  gazed  at  her  momentarily  ani 
mated  face.  "  Lots  of  fun  your  first  trip  over  always. 
Everything's  so  new.  After  a  while,  it  gets  to  be  an  old 
story  —  but  we're  always  going  to  have  a  good  time, 
aren't  we,  hey  ? "  he  said,  and  added  tenderly  under  his 
breath,  "  Sweetheart !  " 

Mary  Schultze  and  Everett,  meanwhile,  enjoyed  them 
selves  with  considerably  more  freedom,  having,  as  Everett 
pointed  out  with  much  good  humour,  the  advantages  of 
their  unimportance.  "  We  aren't  anybody !  "  the  young 
fellow  said.  "  Nobody's  afraid  to  speak  to  us.  We  can 
fraternize  with  the  cook's  galley  —  whatever  that  is,  they 
always  had  'em  on  board  ships,  even  pirate-ships,  in  those 
bloodthirsty  sea-yarns  I  used  to  read  when  I  was  a  boy. 
We  can  be  just  as  low-down  and  sociable  as  we  choose. 
And  where  are  the  diabolical  card-sharks  we've  heard  so 
much  about  as  infesting  the  big  liners?  No  one's  tried 
to  gamble  my  money  out  of  me,  so  far.  Maybe  they  know 
I  haven't  got  any !  "  He  had  turned  out  a  dependable 
sailor,  suffering  no  qualms  even  when  the  sea  was  most 
trying,  was  in  the  highest  spirits  and  made  the  best  trav 
elling-companion  imaginable. 

It  was  one  day  when  the  fog  had  been  so  heavy  that  the 
electric  lights  were  burning  all  over  the  ship  —  as  indeed 
was  not  unusual  —  that  Sandra  came  out  of  the  cabin  with 
all  her  wraps  to  take  one  of  those  turns  in  the  open  air 
which  Levison  insisted  were  so  beneficial ;  in  reality  he 
was  not  so  solicitous  about  her  health,  which  had  never 
undergone  a  day's  set-back  all  the  time  he  had  known  her, 
as  desirous  of  tucking  her  arm  under  his,  and  walking  up 
and  down  in  that  blissful  contact,  "  having  her  all  to  him- 


332  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

self  "  as  he  put  it.  Sandra  went  through  the  lounge,  meet 
ing  Mary  likewise  clad  for  the  outside,  but  hurrying  in 
the  opposite  direction. 

"  It  isn't  so  bad  out  —  just  raw.  I'm  going  to  get  poor 
little  Fix.  He  does  love  to  go  out  so,  and  I  couldn't  take 
him  yesterday.  I'll  put  his  blanket  on,"  she  called  out 
hastily  in  explanation,  as  they  passed,  and  went  on  down 
the  corridor.  Sandra  never  saw  her  again. 

Levison  in  his  fur-lined  and  befrogged  overcoat  was 
waiting  for  her  at  the  double-doors.  A  penetrating  buffet 
of  cold  air  struck  them,  emerging.  "  We  must  be  in  the 
Gulf  Stream,"  Levison  said  jocularly.  Everett,  standing 
near,  muffled  to  the  eyes,  with  the  glowing  end  of  a  cigar 
protruding  from  some  point  within  his  defences,  laughed 
and  repeated  the  famous  old  version  of  a  famous  old  line : 
"  '  Sprig,  jeddle  Sprig,  ethereal  bildness,  cub ! '  "  mimick 
ing  with  his  native  skill,  a  bad  cold  in  the  head.  And 
just  then,  as  they  were  all  standing,  they  felt  a  shock. 

It  made  Sandra  stumble  forward  and  back,  and  she  had 
to  clutch  Levison's  arm,  who  himself  grasped  at  a  hand 
hold  ;  some  of  the  others  lost  their  footing  and  went  slid 
ing  and  floundering  with  the  deck-chairs ;  and  they  heard 
some  sort  of  heavy  noise;  and  the  motion  of  the  ship 
ceased  with  a  kind  of  lingering  heave. 

Sandra  said :  "  Oh,  we've  struck  something !  " 

A  very  tall  man  near  by  said :  "  No,  it  struck  us. 
They've  done  it  after  all !  " 

"  Not  the  Germans  ?  Do  you  think  it  was  a  torpedo  ?  " 
said  Levison. 

The  tall  man  said  yes.  Then  he  said,  "  Yes,  sure  it 
was  a  torpedo !  "  And  then  he  added,  looking  vaguely 
around,  "  What  do  you  suppose  made  'em  think  that  was 
a  smart  thing  to  do  ?  " 

There  began  to  be  a  movement,  trampling  and  noises, 


THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY  333 

and  suddenly  they  were  in  a  crowd.  Sandra  felt  Levison 
pushing  her  along.  The  deck  was  at  a  difficult  slant  be 
neath  her  feet;  it  was  like  walking  sideways  across  the 
face  of  a  hill.  She  saw  men  very  thick  and  busy  about  a 
certain  place,  but  there  were  too  many  people  between  for 
her  to  make  out  clearly  what  was  being  done.  She  asked 
Levison :  "  Are  we  badly  hurt  ?  Is  there  any  danger  ? 
Let's  ask  somebody." 

One  of  the  ship's  officers  who  seemed  to  be  stationed  at 
the  point  they  were  just  passing  heard  and  answered  her. 
"  Oh,  no,  ma'am,  no  trouble  at  all.  Only  it's  orders  pas 
sengers  must  get  into  the  boats."  He  raised  his  voice  and 
repeated  the  speech  to  others  coming  behind.  "  ISTo 
trouble !  No  danger !  Just  move  up,  please !  "  He  was 
a  young  fellow,  with  a  high  English  colour  which  did  not 
fade,  nor  did  his  hearty  and  reassuring  voice  falter. 
"  That's  it,  step  along,  please !  No,  we'll  be  delayed  a 
little,  that's  all!" 

A  man  beside  Sandra  jostled  her  involuntarily,  and  said, 
"  Oh,  pardon  me !  "  The  movement  of  the  crowd  had 
halted  abruptly,  throwing  him  against  her.  In  a  second 
they  began  to  press  forward  again;  there  was  very  little 
confusion,  however,  not  so  much  as  in  an  ordinary  crowd 
of  excursionists;  numbers  of  men  were  standing  disen 
gaged  from  the  current  of  people,  against  the  rail,  or  the 
bulkheads,  not  doing  anything,  merely  looking  on,  as  it 
seemed;  some  of  them  smoked.  There  were  faces  at  the 
windows  of  the  saloons  and  staterooms.  Sandra  saw  her 
brother  who,  she  thought  was  immediately  back  of  her, 
among  those  detached  men  on  the  outskirts;  she  saw  him 
bearing  back,  flattening  himself,  to  let  some  one  get  by 
him.  She  cried  out :  "  Everett,  where's  Mary  ?  Have 
you  seen  Mary  ?  " 

He  waved  his  hand  at  her  and  smiled,  and  called  back : 


334  THE  BOARDM'AN  FAMILY 

"It's  all  right!  1*11  get  her!"  Just  at  the  instant,  a 
woman  came  up  to  him  with  a  life-belt  in  her  hands,  and 
said  urgently :  "  Oh,  sir,  could  you  please  tell  me  how  to 
put  this  on  ?  " 

Everett  took  it  from  her  with  his  habitual  slight  cour 
teous  gesture,  and  began  to  adjust  it  on  her  methodically, 
with  intent  eyes,  frowning  a  little  over  some  fastening. 
The  crowd,  intervening,  shut  him  from  Sandra's  vision. 
She  tugged  at  Levison's  arm,  and  said :  "  Everett's  there 
— right  over  there!  He's  going  for  Mary.  Don't  you 
want  to  wait  for  them  ?  Let's  wait !  " 

"  Come  on !  "  said  Levison  hoarsely,  pulling  her.  The 
deck  shifted  again  under  their  feet ;  it  settled  a  little. 

They  reached  the  busy  spot,  which,  as  she  now  saw,  was 
at  the  foot  of  an  improvised  gangway  where  some  of  the 
ship's  officers  were  gathered,  passing  people  to  a  lifeboat. 
The  officer  farther  away  could  still  be  heard  reiterating 
his :  "  No  danger !  Just  move  on,  please !  " 

Levison  all  at  once  began  to  speak  to  Sandra  in  a  hurried 
undertone :  "  Where's  your  money  ?  Where's  all  your 
jewellery  and  stuff  ?  Where  d'you  keep  it  ?  Is  it  on  you  ?  " 

"  In  the  cabin,"  said  Sandra,  startled.  "  Why  ?  Shall 
I  go  and  get  it  ?  " 

"  No,  no !  "  He  grasped  her  arm  violently.  "  What 
are  you  thinking  about?  The  lights  are  all  out  anyhow. 
Here !  "  He  made  some  abortive  gesture  towards  his 
own  garments,  but  as  suddenly  abandoned  whatever  pur 
pose  he  had  with  a  grunt  of  impatience.  "  Pshaw !  It's 
all  in  my  belt  underneath  everything.  I  couldn't  get  at 
it  in  a  thousand  years  —  Here !  "  He  crowded  something 
into  her  hand,  fairly  closing  her  surprised  and  slow  fingera 
over  it.  "  Get  hold  of  it,  put  it  away !  Haven't  you  got 
a  pocket  ?  Women  never  have  any  pockets !  " 

Sandra  held  it  mechanically.     Levison  said  something 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  335 

else  as  confused  and  incomprehensible  as  his  other  words, 
but  this  last  she  did  not  even  catch.  She  found  herself 
on  the  gang-plank  with  the  man  who  had  jostled  her.  An 
officer  was  saying  to  him  civilly :  "  Step  back,  please,  sir. 
Men's  turn  comes  after  the  ladies." 

"  I  know,  I  know !  "  said  the  man ;  "  don't  you  see  I 
just  want  to  pass  my  little  boy  to  my  wife '?  That's  her !  " 
He  had  a  child  in  his  arms,  to  be  sure,  as  Sandra  now 
saw,  a  stout  little  two-year-old  in  a  red  worsted  knitted 
cap,  staring  with  round  eyes  over  his  father's  shoulder. 
They  handed  him  over  like  a  bundle. 

She  was  in  the  lifeboat,  almost  the  last  one.  Somebody 
shouted  orders;  the  boat  seemed  to  totter  giddily  in  the 
air  for  an  instant,  but  there  was  no  sensation  of  being 
lowered ;  instead,  it  was  as  if  the  water  rushed  up  to  the 
keel  with  a  staggering  impact.  The  sea  which  had  looked 
smooth  enough  from  the  ship,  was  a  huddle  of  marching 
waves  amongst  whose  great  shoulders  the  boat  rolled  and 
recovered  balance  and  rolled  again  with  a  hideous  inde 
cision.  All  the  while  the  men  —  there  were  not  more 
than  half  a  dozen  all  told  —  shouted  at  one  another  from 
bow  to  stern,  and  bent  to  the  sweeps  frantically.  Some  one 
shrieked  out :  "  Oh,  it's  falling  over  on  us !  Look,  it's 
falling  over  on  us !  "  In  fact,  looking  upward  from  the 
water's  level,  the  enormous  hull,  by  some  illusion  of  the 
eye,  seemed  to  beetle  above  them  threateningly;  but  this 
only  endured  momentarily,  departing  as  the  distance 
widened.  So  towering  was  the  ship's  bulk  that  already 
faces  and  figures  were  indistinguishable  overhead,  and  the 
farther  end  of  her  was  lost  in  stealing  fog.  On  a  sudden, 
with  the  realization  of  this  size  and  of  the  life  that  pop 
ulated  it,  there  descended  upon  the  lifeboat  a  terrible  and 
pitiless  illumination.  One  of  the  women  struggled  to  her 
feet,  with  arms  outstretched  and  screamed  "  John !  John !  " 


336  THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY 

in  a  wild  voice.  They  pulled  her  down.  Sandra,  with, 
incredible  effort,  articulated  a  question  to  the  man  at 
the  oar  nearest  her :  "  Will  there  be  room  for  everybody  ? 
There  will  be  room  for  everybody  ?  " 

"  Oh,  plenty  of  room,  yes,  ma'am.  Plenty  of  room," 
he  answered  her  automatically,  straining  with  the  rest  to 
keep  their  toy-like  craft  head  on  to  the  seas ;  with  all  their 
endeavour,  water  slapped  over  the  gunwales  from  time 
to  time.  Sandra  sat  with  the  other  women  in  an  unthink 
ing  blankness  of  mind,  staring  at  the  ship  as  they  receded. 
No  one  spoke,  yet  the  boat  was  full  of  dreadful  sounds  like 
those  of  animals  in  agony.  Presently  Sandra,  upon  some 
boding  impulse,  bent  over  hiding  her  face  on  her  knees, 
and  covering  up  her  eyes  and  ears  in  the  thick  folds  of 
her  clothing.  While  she  crouched,  a  longer  wave  lifted 
the  boat;  and  there  was  a  kind  of  wail.  After  what 
seemed  to  her  a  long,  long  while,  she  lifted  her  head 
but  without  looking  anywhere,  and  spoke  to  the  man  again, 
with  the  same  slow  and  painful  labour. 

"  It's  gone  ?     The  ship's  gone  ?  " 

"  Yes,  ma'am,"  he  said.     He  kept  on  rowing. 

There  was  another  long,  long  while.  Then  she 
screamed,  clawing  at  his  arm  and  pointing :  "  Stop,  stop ! 
Can't  you  see  ?  Stop !  Make  the  others  stop !  " 

It  swept  down  the  waves  towards  them,  within  an  oar's 
length,  but  they  did  not  stop.  "  Oh,  my  Gawd,  ma'am,  it's 
gone!  It's  dead  and  drownded.  The  pore  little  thing's 
dead  and  drownded,  and  the  bother  one  'as  it's  'ead  bashed 
in  —  struck  a  davitt,  likely,  goin'  over,  or  somethink. 
'Tain't  no  use  stoppin',"  said  the  man. 

Sandra  had  not  seen  that  there  was  another  one.  She 
crouched  together,  hiding  her  face  again.  It  was  bitterly 
cold.  After  an  interval  of  hours,  or  perhaps  minutes,  she 
could  not  have  told,  Sandra  felt  rather  than  heard  the 


THE  BOAKDMAF  FAMILY  337 

man  speaking  to  her  urgently.  Rousing  herself  enough 
to  look  upon  him,  she  saw  it  was  some  one  she  knew ;  and 
then,  with  the  emotionless  acquiescence  of  a  dream,  recog 
nized  the  little  steward  with  the  crooked  nose.  He  spoke 
again,  contorting  his  features  out  of  hahit  into  something 
which  would  have  been  his  ordinary  civil  smile. 

"  Beg  parding,  ma'am,  d'ye  think  you  could  bail  a  little  ? 
She's  takin'  in  fast.  If  you  could  manage  to  bail  a 
little  —  ?" 

She  became  aware  that  he  was  trying  to  put  something 
into  her  hand,  a  can,  a  dipper  or  what-not,  and  mutely 
opening  her  fingers  to  receive  it,  found  that  there  was 
already  something  in  them.  She  looked  down.  It  was 
Levison's  watch  and  chain  which  he  had  thrust  into  her 
hands  at  that  last  moment. 

"  Won't  you  try  to  bail,  ma'am  ?  Thank  you,"  said  the 
steward. 

Sandra  bailed;  the  icy  cold  water  washing  to  and  fro 
in  the  bottom  of  the  boat  was  above  her  ankles.  She 
scooped  at  it  with  her  thimble  measure  for  hours  and 
hours  —  or  again,  only  minutes,  she  never  knew.  Some 
times  she  wondered  how  it  was  that  her  feet  could  be  at 
once  numb  and  exquisitely  painful ;  sometimes  she  watched 
the  slow,  stiff  and  regular  movements  of  her  own  hands 
with  a  distant  curiosity;  they  seemed  to  work  independ 
ently  of  her.  She  did  not  think  at  all  —  not  even  of 
Mary,  not  even  of  Levison  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  or  of 
Everett  whose  body  was  washed  up  on  shore,  hard  by  the 
Old  Head  of  Kinsale  three  days  later. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

SAM  THATCHER,  sitting  in  the  lounge  of  the  little 
old-fashioned  hotel  on  Trafalgar  Square  where  he 
always  stayed  during  his  London  visits,  read  the  news 
paper  accounts  of  the  disaster  with  the  astounded  and  at 
first  unbelieving  horror  felt  by  untold  thousands  of  his 
countrymen.  The  mind  rebelled  against  it,  as  earlier  it 
had  rebelled  against  the  tales  from  Belgium  and  northern 
France.  In  the  twentieth  century,  among  civilized 
people,  such  things  were  impossible;  nobody  would  con 
ceive  them,  nobody  could  be  found  to  carry  them  out. 
All  the  stories  were  sensational  rubbish ;  neswpapers  must 
talk,  must  publish  something,  must  live  in  short.  But 
now  — !  "  Why,  it  was  all  true !  Every  one  of  the  sick 
ening,  diabolical  details  was  true !  "  Sam  thought.  "  It 
was  deliberately  planned  and  executed  in  cold  blood  — 
like  this.  I  can  believe  anything  of  them  now." 

He  read  the  lists  of  victims  over  and  over,  vaguely 
hoping  to  find  some  mistake  of  his  own  or  the  reporters' 
He  knew  others  of  the  passengers  besides  Sandra.  She 
appeared  two  or  three  times,  as  Miss  A.  Boardman  on  the 
ship's  register  in  one  column,  in  another  as  Mademoiselle 
Sandra,  elsewhere  in  brief  paragraphs  referring  to  her 
professional  celebrity.  She  was  among  the  handful  of 
survivors  at  the  hospital,  all  of  them  in  a  critical  condi 
tion;  some  picked  up  in  her  boat  and  others,  or  clinging 
to  rafts  and  wreckage  had  since  died.  Bodies  were  being 
recovered  daily.  There  were  notices  of  Levison  — "A  fa 
miliar*  figure  in  the  Rialto,  a  park  in  New  York  much 

338 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  339 

frequented  by  the  theatrical  fraternity/'  the  English  paper 
said;  the  description  might  have  made  Sam  smile  at  an 
other  time.  Everett  Boardman  had  registered  under  his 
stage  name,  which  it  happened  Sam  had  never  heard  or 
had  forgotten,  so  that  he  did  not  know  that  his  schoolboy 
friend  was  among  the  lost  until  later,  when  more  detailed 
accounts  came  out.  He  identified  Mary  Schultze,  how 
ever,  with  the  M.  Schultze  who  was  listed  as  Miss  Board- 
man's  maid.  Strangely  enough,  Mary's  death  made  a 
deeper  impression  on  Sam  than  any  other  single  fact, 
though  of  all  that  company  wherein  figured  more  than 
one  name  of  renown,  she  was  the  least  and  most  obscure. 
Sam  had  grown  to  know  her  well ;  he  recalled  the  last  time 
he  had  seen  her,  the  time  she  told  him  of  Sandra's  engage 
ment.  It  was  a  mid-winter  afternoon,  and  Mary  was 
struggling  around  the  corner  of  the  Flat-Iron  Building 
against  a  high  wind  that  bounced  her  skirts  unbecomingly 
—  her  skirts  that  were  always  so  hopelessly  un-stylish,  as 
even  Sam  was  aware ;  her  hat  was  over  one  ear  and  straight 
strands  of  hair  switched  across  her  face,  and  her  long  nose 
was  reddened  at  the  tip;  she  raised  to  him  pale-blue  eyes 
that  watered  a  little  with  the  wind  — "  Oh,  Mr.  Thatcher !  " 
Poor  Mary,  poor  dowdy,  harmless  creature,  now  elevated 
to  the  rank  of  martyrs  by  the  disproportionate  tragedy  of 
her  end.  This  death  that  gained  nothing  for  the  mur 
derers,  that  led  to  nothing,  that  served  no  imaginable  pur 
pose,  epitomized  for  Sam  Thatcher  the  imbecile  barbarity 
of  the  whole  slaughter.  That  a  great  government,  a  great 
power,  should  bend  its  monstrous  energies  to  the  destruc 
tion —  of  Mary  Schultze!  He  saw  the  thing  defeated 
justice,  and  left  men  with  no  recourse  but  revenge;  and 
felt  the  awful  obligation  laid  upon  himself. 

He  went  out,  and  found  when  the  next  ship  sailed  for 
home,  went  to  the  Victorgraph  offices,  dictated  some  letters, 


340  THE  BOABDMAN  FAMILY 

managed  to  get  two  or  three  cable  messages  sent,  bought 
more  papers  and  read  them  and  walked  about- the  streets 
restlessly.  Everybody  seemed  to  be  doing  the  same  thing ; 
Sam  had  not  supposed  it  was  in  English  people  to  be  so 
ready  to  talk,  so  open.  He  had  some  queer  experiences, 
not  all  grave.  Once  he  got  caught  in  a  jam  of  people  at 
a  corner  where  there  were  bulletins  posted  up,  and  as  he 
was  trying  to  worm  his  way  through,  a  fine  Victorian- 
looking  equipage  of  a  carriage  with  a  team  of  bays,  and 
with  footmen  in  livery  came  down  the  cross-street,  with  a 
stout,  high-featured  old  lady  sitting  erect  within  and  a 
young  boy  in  the  short  jacket  and  pot-hat  of  a  famous 
school  which  Sam  always  beheld  with  an  affectionate 
amusement  wholly  American.  The  old  lady,  chancing  to 
look  in  his  direction,  commanded  her  coachman  to  halt, 
and  to  Sam's  astonishment,  beckoned  him  imperiously. 
He  stepped  to  the  side  of  the  carriage,  wondering  within 
him,  and  took  off  his  hat. 

"  You  want  to  enlist,  my  man  ? "  asked,  or  rather  an 
nounced  the  old  lady,  fixing  him  with  an  eye  which  must 
have  made  the  underlings  of  her  household  tremble;  and 
before  he  could  answer,  went  on :  "  You  can  stand  on  the 
step  and  I  will  take  you  around  the  other  way  to  the  re 
cruiting-office.  That  will  be  quicker  for  you  than  try 
ing  to  get  through  from  this  side." 

"  Thank  you,  but  I'm  not  going  to  enlist  here  — "  Sam 
was  beginning,  when  she  cut  him  short  severely. 

"What,  you  aren't?  For  shame!  A  great,  strapping 
fellow  like  you !  Are  you  going  to  let  them  butcher  women 
and  babies  —  ?  " 

"  I  said  I  wasn't  going  to  enlist  here"  said  Sam. 

Something  in  his  face  or  intonation  arrested  her. 
"  Ho !  "  said  the  old  lady,  putting  up  a  lorgnette.  "  Ho ! 
You're  an  American.  I  don't  like  Americans  —  can't 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  341 

bear  'em.  You  don't  care  about  anything  but  money.  Go 
on,  Forbes !  " 

And  she  went  on,  without  another  look  at  Sam,  who  re 
turned  to  his  slow  advance  with  the  first  smile  that  had 
visited  his  face  for  three  days.  But  the  adventure  was 
not  yet  over,  for  directly  the  boy  who  had  been  in  the 
carriage  came  elbowing  up  after  him,  breathlessly  jerking 
out,  "  Sir,  sir !  "  and  followed  by  one  of  the  footmen  with 
a  rather  disturbed  expression. 

"  I  say,  y'  know,  I  —  I  hope  you  don't  mind  my  grand 
mother  ?  Calling  you  '  my  man  '  and  —  and  all  that  ? 
She  didn't  see  you  were  a  gentleman;  she  doesn't  always 
look,"  said  the  boy  stammering,  very  red  and  embarrassed. 
He  was  a  thin,  overgrown  stripling,  and  did  not  look 
strong,  as  Sam  now  observed. 

"  That's  all  right,  son.  I  don't  mind  being  called  a 
man,"  he  said. 

"  She  didn't  mean  that  about  Americans,  either.  She 
doesn't  know  any  Americans.  She  just  —  she  just  — " 

"  That's  all  right,  too.  Just  tell  her  I'm  going  to  enlist 
when  I  get  back  home,  and  I'm  going  back  right  away/' 
Sam  told  him. 

"  They  won't  let  me.  I'm  not  old  enough,"  said  the 
lad  wistfully.  "  Crowder's  going,  though,  aren't  you, 
Crowder?" 

"  Yes,  m'  lord,"  said  the  footman,  and  touched  his  hat. 

"  Good  old  Crowdy !  "  said  the  boy  approvingly.  He 
spoke  again  to  Sam,  thrusting  out  his  hand  with  an  en 
gaging  mixture  of  shyness  and  straightforwardness.  "  My 
name's  Jack  Vincent.  If  it  lasts  long  enough,  maybe  I'll 
get  out  there  after  all,  and  we  might  meet,  eh  ? " 

Sam  shook  his  hand  cordially,  and  told  him  his  own 
name  and  added  something  about  hoping  to  see  him  "  out 
there,"  thinking  meanwhile  that  this  poor  delicate  child's 


342  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

doom  was  much  more  likely  to  fall  at  home  in  his  bed,  than 
by  some  German  bullet.  Months  afterwards,  reading  in 
some  London  obituaries  that  John  Gregory  Howard  Vin 
cent,  Lord  Carr,  had  died  at  Mentone  of  tuberculosis  in  the 
eighteenth  year  of  his  age  and  that  with  him  the  title 
became  extinct,  Sam  wondered  if  it  were  the  same. 

Another  time  he  fell  in  with  a  clergyman,  and  passed 
a  whole  morning  roaming  the  streets  with  him,  the  rev 
erend  gentleman  seeming  not  to  have  any  duties  or  not 
to  be  capable  of  attending  to  them,  and  sticking  to  Sain 
"  like  a  burr  "  as  the  latter  said.  "  He  was  about  half- 
crazy,  that  man  was,  from  brooding  over  the  thing,  you 
know.  His  '  cure  of  souls '  was  down  in  Kent  somewhere, 
he  told  me  the  place  but  didn't  give  his  name,  and  didn't 
ask  mine.  Nobody  on  the  ship  belonged  to  him ;  he  didn't 
even  know  a  soul  on  board  of  her.  I  think  he  must  just 
have  run  away  from  home  and  gone  on  the  loose,  because 
he  simply  couldn't  sit  still  and  think  about  it.  It  didn't 
gee  with  what  he  had  been  trained  to  preach  and  think 
about  —  about  his  religion,  you  know.  He  kept  say 
ing:  '  Sir,  I  am  a  believing  Christian!  I  am  solemnly 
convinced  that  the  Lord  does  not  willingly  afflict  or  grieve 
the  children  of  men.'  And  he'd  quote  things  out  of  the 
Bible  about  '  Vengeance  is  mine,  saith  the  Lord,'  and 
another  place  where  it  says :  *  Thus  saith  the  Lord :  I  will 
set  before  thee  the  thing  that  thou  hast  done.'  He  wanted 
to  know  if  I  didn't  think  that  was  the  worst  punishment 
men  could  be  threatened  with,  and  talked  about  people's 
consciences  being  their  most  awful  judge,  didn't  I  think 
so  ?  '  Well,  I  don't  know '  I  said  to  him.  '  Pioneer  times 
in  my  country  the  Indians  used  to  scalp  people  and  torture 
them  and  burn  them  to  death  —  women  and  children  too, 
they  didn't  mind  women  and  children  any  more  than  these 
Germans  do.  I  guess  you  couldn't  set  before  the  Iroquois 


THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY  343 

the  things  they  did ;  the  pioneers  didn't  try  anyhow.  They 
went  after  'em  with  guns.  You  can't  set  before  a  New 
Guinea  cannibal  the  thing  he  does;  but  you  can  fix  him 
so  he  won't  do  it  any  more.  I  don't  think  the  Lord  would 
go  at  punishing  that  kind  of  people  that  way ;  He'd  know 
it  wouldn't  be  any  use.  I'm  not  a  church  member,  but  I 
don't  mean  any  irreverence  when  I  say  it  looks  as  if  He'd 
left  us  the  job.'  '  That's  what  I  mean,  that's  what  I  mean : 
He  will  point  us  the  way.  The  Almighty  purpose  will 
be  achieved  through  man's  agency ! '  says  the  parson. 
<  That's  what  I  have  contended.  It  is  not  incompatible 
with  a  Christian  attitude  of  mind.'  He  hadn't  said  any 
thing  of  the  kind,  but  I  wasn't  going  to  argue  with  him. 
The  poor  devil  was  about  half-crazy,"  Sam  would  conclude, 
shaking  his  head.  "  Nice,  quiet-looking  little  man  as  you 
ever  saw !  " 

He  kind-heartedly  endured  this  companionship  until 
chance  relieved  him  of  it.  They  passed  a  knot  of  weather- 
beaten  men,  sailors  by  their  looks,  in  front  of  a  public- 
house  and  heard  one  of  them  orating  earnestly :  "The 
Titanic  now,  the  Titanic,  as  yer  might  say,  was  the  ack 
of  God.  But,  mates,  yer  wouldn't  think  men  would  go 
to  do  such  a  thing,  now  would  yer  ? " 

The  clergyman  gave  a  kind  of  groan  and  stood  still 
covering  his  face.  Sam,  thinking  he  had  been  suddenly 
taken  ill,  exclaimed  in  concern,  but  the  other  dropping 
his  hands  with  a  despairing  gesture  showed  him  a  coun 
tenance  so  ravaged  by  spiritual  doubts  and  questions  of 
which  Sam  had  no  conception  that  his  offers  of  help  died 
on  his  lips.  "  You  heard  him  ?  You  heard  that  poor, 
honest,  simple  fellow  ?  "  said  the  minister  wildly.  "  Sir, 
I  am  a  believing  Christian  —  the  ways  of  God  are  not 
our  ways  —  until  light  is  vouchsafed  us,  we  can  make  no 
answer  —  we  can  onlv  lean  on  the  rock  of  our  faith  — " 


THE  BOAKDMAX  FAMILY 

Sam  felt  a  kind  of  indecency  in  listening;  he  stood  by 
for  a  moment,  awkwardly  muttering  whatever  common 
places  occarred  to  him;  and  then,  seeing  himself  forgotten, 
escaped  at  last,  thankfollv. 

He  witnessed  many  scenes  at  the  steamship  and  tele 
graph  companies'  offices  of  which  he  never  afterwards 
would  speak  —  or  indeed  think,  if  he  could  prevent  him 
self.  ETCH  the  few  instances  of  good  luck,  the  few  happy 
surprises  were  only  a  little  less  painful  to  look  upon  than 
the  impotent  misery  of  the  others.  Once  he  went  to  the 
aid  of  a  young  girl  whom  he  saw  standing  by  a  bench 
whereon  there  sat  an  elderly  man  apparently  verging  on 
some  sort  of  collapse,  both  of  them  sobbing  hysterically. 
"  You've  had  bad  news!"  said  Sam.  "Let  me  help 
let  me  do  something  for  you !  Maybe  it's  not  true.  Can't 
I  i  s  ~>-:_:::j  :  "  He  addressed  himself  more  partic 
ularly  to  the  girl,  who  was  not  more  than  sixteen  years 
old,  dressed  all  in  black,  and  looked  pitifully  helpless,  as 
S.iii'-  •"_.  •:_:"--.  ••  Y  in  faAfcaft  nek  :  Tell  ~o  —L^r:  y.u 
live  and  Til  take  you  home," 

"  Oh,  thank  you  —  that  is,  we'll  go  home  —  we're  going 
home  now  —  only  don't  bother !  Nothing  has  happened, 
and  we're  so  glad,  that* s  all !  "  said  the  girl  disjointedly 
bgjtfffn  her  sobs.  And  the  Tnan?  looking  up,  commanded 
himself  with  an  effort,  and  blew  his  nose  very  loud,  and 
wiped  his  eyes,  and  said:  "I've  taken  cold  somehow,  I 
believe  —  very  annoying!  Tst,  tet,  Gracie,  there's  noth 
ing  to  cry  about  —  there,  there,  now  — "  He  got  up,  and 
patted  her  on  the  shoulder,  and  said  to  Sam  apologetically, 
"  She's  been  under  a  severe  strain,  but  it's  over  now,  thank 
God!" 

He  was  a  ruddy-faced  Englishman,  neatly  dressed,  with 
mutton-chop  whiskers,  the  very  counterpart  of  John  Bull 
in  the  comic  cartoons.  All  at  once  he  began  to  talk! 


THE  BOARDMAX  FAMILY 

"  Her  father  —  my  son,  sir,  an  only  son  —  was  killed  at 
the  Marae  last  f  afl.  My  daughter  is  married  in  the  States 
11  are  from  the  States,  I  believe!  Quite  so!  —  she 
has  been  living  there  some  years,  a  place  called  Iowa,  JOB 
perhaps  know  it!  Ah,  quite  so!  She  was  comix 
to  be  with  us,  to  —  to  cheer  us  up  a  bit,  yon  will 
stand?  Xaturafly  we  have  been  very  lonely  —  my 
sir,  an  only  son,  Grade's  father  —  it  left  us  very  lonely. 
She  has  two  little  girls — she  was  bringing  them  over. 
We  understood  she  had  taken  passage  on  this  ship  —  that 
was  her  plan.  Sir,  it  has  been  a  very  hard  time — "  His 
voice  failed.  "A  very  hard  time  —  three  days — we 

didn't  sail!"     He  broke  down  again ;  and  as  for  Sannel 
Thatcher,  he  too  had  to  get  out  his  handkerchief. 

"Yon  think  Doctor  Wilson  wffl  —  er — take  active 

tral  now,  sir  f "  the  old  gentleman  said  to  him  earnestly. 
-urenoi!     I'm  going  home  so  as  to  get  into  die  army," 

"•"'"~"    *^L.    j.     —  ~~~     .1  "*  —""  1  _  IL       Z 


from  the  United  States  with  every  issue  of  die  papers, 
and  had  answered  the  same  question  thus  a  score  of  tunes. 

He  saw  Sandra  at  last.  She  was  mending  slowly  — 
"  An  astonishingly  rigorous  constitution,  for  a  woman  of 
so  frail  a  build,"  the  worn-looking  doctor  said.  He  had 
been  on  dnty  for  thirty-six  boors  u  on  end,"  he 
casually  and  not  at  all  in  a  complaining 
in  explanation  that  they  were  short-handed  as  to 
men,  especially  smguuua,  great  numbers  of  them  having 
gone  into  the  Service,  He  did  not  as 
being  probably  too  fatigued,  or  surfeited  with 
stories ;  but  the  nurses  were  frankly  inquisitive  and 
ested  Wai  true  that  tike  lady  was  an  actress 
dancer?  Dear  me,  wasn't  that  too  had,  though!  Her 


346  THE  BOAEDMA1ST  FAMILY 

feet  had  been  something  awful ;  she  was  lucky  not  to  lose 
them.  They  seemed  to  be  coming  round  fairly  well  now, 
owing  to  her  being  so  wonderfully  strong,  and  no  gangrene, 
for  a  wonder;  but  a  dancer!  It  was  a  dreadful  pity. 
Her  brother  and  her  sweetheart  had  both  been  lost,  did 
Sam  know  about  it  ?  He  himself  was  —  ?  Oh,  just  a 
friend.  They  looked  at  him  speculatively,  and  stopped 
outside  the  door  with  parting  injunctions  to  be  careful  and 
not  to  let  her  talk  about  it  too  much  and  get  excited  — 
"  Though  I  must  say,"  one  of  them  remarked ;  "  that  they 
aren't  any  of  'em  anywhere  near  so  excited,  in  general,  as 
the  visitors !  Seems  as  if  they've  been  through  too  much, 
and  there  wasn't  any  special  point  in  getting  up  a  how-de- 
do  about  it  now,  poor  souls !  " 

"  I  suppose  I  ought  not  to  stay  any  length  of  time  ? " 
Sam  asked. 

"  Bless  you,  sir,  we'll  take  care  you  don't ! "  said  the 
nurse  with  a  laugh. 

Sandra  looked  very  small  and  fragile  propped  up  in 
the  hospital  bed;  but  the  voice  in  which  she  spoke  his 
name  was  normal,  and  her  hand  though  it  fluttered  un 
manageably  felt  warm  and  natural  in  Sam's  big  grasp. 
"  I  knew  you'd  come  if  you  were  anywhere  near,"  she 
said;  and  began  to  talk  about  her  father  and  mother. 
"  I  cabled  them  —  some  one  did  it  for  me,  I  mean  —  as 
soon  as  I  could.  They've  been  so  kind  here  —  they've 
done  everything,  everything!  And  the  ship  that  picked 
us  up  —  I  don't  remember  much  except  that  they  were 
kind  —  they  kept  trying  to  make  us  warm.  Everybody 
is  so  good.  I  can't  write  yet,  but  I  got  the  nurse  —  it's 
that  one  that  came  with  you  —  to  write  for  me  —  to 
Mother,  you  know  —  and  I  signed  my  name.  I  don't 
want  them  to  worry  about  me.  Poor  Mother,  it's  going 
to  be  so  hard  for  her !  You  knew  about  Everett,  Sam  ?  " 


THE  BOAEDMAN  FAMILY  347 

Sam  knew  by  that  time,  and  told  her  so,  and  that  he  too 
had  cabled  and  written  to  the  family  to  say  that  he  was 
there  and  would  look  after  her  and  take  charge  of  —  of 
everything,  if  they  so  desired.  "  Your  father  just  cabled 
back,  'Yes.'  He  couldn't  send  any  long  message,  of 
course.  There  are  hundreds  of  them  waiting  to  be  sent, 
though  they  gave  ours  precedence  over  everything  else," 
said  Sam.  "  In  the  meanwhile  I  thought  I'd  just  take 
it  on  myself  to  do  what  I  could  —  whatever  seemed  advis 
able—" 

"  I  haven't  any  money,  Sam  —  I  — "  Her  face 
changed  so  tragically  as  to  silence  Sam's  hasty  assur 
ances  that  that  was  of  no  consequence,  his  adjurations  not 
to  think  about  anything  like  that.  She  told  him  then 
about  Levison,  pulling  out  the  watch  from  under  the 
pillow.  "  It  was  the  last  thing  he  did.  He  was  trying 
to  take  care  of  me  the  very  last  minute  he  had  on  earth. 
He  asked  me  if  I  had  any  money  —  I  didn't  understand 
—  I  didn't  know.  I  never  even  said  good-bye !  It  was 
all  so  quick  —  we  didn't  know  what  was  happening  — 
we  women,  I  mean  —  we  did  what  the  men  told  us  to  do. 
We're  so  used  to  that  —  we  didn't  think  what  it  meant  this 
time.  I  didn't,  anyhow.  The  men  knew  —  some  of  them 
knew.  Maybe  Everett  did;  at  least  he  didn't  try  to  get 
away.  But  lie  knew.  He  asked  if  I  had  my  money  and 
jewellery.  We  were  in  a  crowd,  you  know,  and  I  —  I  only 
thought  how  like  him  it  was  to  be  asking  that ;  I  thought 
he  was  thinking  of  pickpockets.  And  all  the  while  he 
was  only  trying  — "  she  was  silent  abruptly.  Throughout 
she  had  spoken  a  little  brokenly,  but  without  any  sug 
gestion  of  hysteria,  and  without  tears.  It  was  plain  she 
was  mistress  of  herself;  the  awful  thing  had  not  shaken 
her  mentally,  as  well  it  might  have.  Sam  found  time 
to  wonder  at  the  uncertainty  she  betrayed  about  Everett, 


348  THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY 

and  decided  that  it  was  unconscious.  He  had  never  trusted 
Everett  Boardrnan  —  but  this  was  no  time  to  harbour 
recollections  like  that,  he  thought  in  self-rebuke.  He 
looked  at  poor  Levison's  great,  showy,  bedizened  watch 
and  chain  and  charm,  moved  and  with  respect.  He  said 
the  only  thing  he  could  think  of  —  the  only  thing  any 
body  could  think  of. 

"  Well,  they  died  like  men !  "  And  Sam  added  humbly, 
"  I  hope  I'd  have  had  the  spirit  to,  if  I'd  been  there." 

"  They  wouldn't  have  been  there,  if  it  hadn't  been  for 
me/7  said  Sandra.  "  Mary  too  —  !  I  know  it  wasn't 
all  my  fault,  but  —  "  She  turned  her  eyes  beseechingly  to 
Sam's  face,  and  said,  as  if  confident  of  his  understanding 
—  in  fact,  Sam  did  understand  after  a  fashion  —  "I 
didn't  care  for  him,  Sam  —  the  way  he  wanted  me  to,  I 
mean.  He  thought  I  cared  for  him,  and  I  tried  to  —  I 
tried  my  best.  He'd  done  so  much  for  me,  and  that  was 
all  he  wanted  —  for  me  to  —  to  love  him.  I  kept  thinking 
that  I  could  —  I  kept  thinking  I  ought  to.  But  you  can't 
make  yourself  do  things  like  that.  I  was  going  to  tell 
him  —  I  was  going  to  stop  it  all,  and  be  honest,  no  matter 
what  came  of  it.  People  can't  live  any  way  but  honestly. 
As  soon  as  I  began  to  see  that  deep  down  in  my  heart  what 
I  wanted  was  to  keep  on  dancing  for  the  excitement  and 
the  money  and  the  feeling  that  I  was  doing  so  much  for 
them  at  home  —  why,  then  I  knew  that  it  was  too  con 
temptible  —  I  couldn't  do  it !  "  She  made  a  slight  move 
ment  with  her  hands,  expressing  finality ;  it  had  the  beauty 
and  the  unmistakable  meaning  of  all  her  gestures.  "  It's 
over  now.  That  part  of  my  life  is  all  over  and  done  with 
for  ever.  I  could  dance  —  but  I  don't  suppose  I  ever  will 
again." 

Sam  was  inwardly  amazed  that  the  doctors  and  nurses 
should  have  allowed  her  to  suspect  this  grave  probability. 


THE  BOAKDMAN  FAMILY  349 

He  was  starting  some  protest  when  she  interrrupted  him 
quite  calmly.  "  They  don't  say  —  they  won't  tell  me  out 
right,  of  course,  but  I  shouldn't  be  surprised.  It  doesn't 
matter.  That  sort  of  life  isn't  the  happiest  for  a  woman. 
Perhaps  if  I  were  a  great  genius  — .  But  I'm  not,  I'm 
only  an  ordinary  girl." 

The  nurse  came  to  the  door,  and  Sam  obediently  got 
up.  "  You're  going  home  ?  "  the  girl  said  longingly. 

"  Next  boat  —  if  you're  well  enough  to  travel.  We'll 
wait  and  see,"  said  Sam,  with  his  strong  wholesome  hand 
holding  hers. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  other  day  there  was  an  entertainment  given  in 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  hall  at  Camp  Andrew  Jackson  for 
the  enlisted  men  assembled  there.  Lemonade  and  ginger- 
snaps  were  dispensed  by  ladies  who  in  the  intervals  of 
their  activities  sat  and  knitted  behind  the  counter  at  one 
end  of  the  room;  at  the  other  end  a  mammoth  Victor- 
graph  donated  by  the  local  branch  of  the  company  rendered 
the  latest  dance-tunes  and  in  between  any  number  of  uni 
formed  young  men  some  with  set  and  earnest  faces  tense 
with  high  resolve,  others  mechanically  smiling,  still  others 
as  mechanically  scowling,  turned,  advanced,  retreated,  slid 
to  one  side  and  otherwise  performed  in  time  to  the  music 
with  an  equal  number  of  girls.  The  floor  of  new  pine 
boards  was  none  too  smooth,  the  place  as  bare  as  a  barn 
save  for  a  scarf  here  and  there  of  tri-coloured  bunting, 
none  of  the  men  and  only  a  few  of  the  girls  looked  as  if 
they  were  taking  the  least  pleasure  in  the  occasion,  yet 
a  feeling  of  intense,  sober  enjoyment  extraordinarily  per 
vaded  the  atmosphere!  When  the  record  spun  out  the 
last  bars,  there  was  always  an  uproarious  clapping  demand 
for  more;  and  the  obliging  little  man  who  was  operating 
the  machine  —  his  name  was  Hoffmeister,  his  father  had 
carried  a  musket  under  Sigel,  he  himself  had  applied  at 
the  recruiting-offices  eight  times  and  been  rejected  because 
of  defective  eyesight,  he  gave  his  services  free,  owned  a 
Liberty  Bond,  subscribed  steadily  to  the  Red  Cross,  and 
cursed  the  Kaiser  upstairs  and  down  with  thorough 
sincerity  —  this  "  hyphenated  "  citizen  always  complied 

with  an  engaging  zest.     Once  he  appeared  to  be  in  some 

350 


THE  BOARDMAX  FAMILY  :: 


difficulty  widi  die  mrrhammi,  aad  a  bifr 
officer  who  had  been  standing  near  the  door  with 

:  .".V.  •  i.    .'-    '      ...        .:!".:         '.         ;  I      -'.'":  I     .  *    1.7    JL  .  .V. 

"Oh,  flcf*  die  way?    Someddng  new,  ain't  it?     I 
nerer  aaw  one  that  worked  Hke  diat  before." 

"I  hare    I  used  to  be  in  Ac  bushuss,"  mid  the  red- 


the  Vktorgraph,  and  Halted  a 
fox-trot  They  fell  into  desultory  enmnatm.  Hoff- 
matter  aaid  that  this  was  a  good  wwk  that  the  Bed  Tri- 


«_ ,|  _-,,     • «_     -     -  -  -  .  -m     m  .  .  .      _• 

noys,  mey  jvac  neaxeo.   can.  nice 
and  gave  'em  a  good  time;  that  was  better  than  talking 

in  bis  opinion.    It  kept 

if  --• .  * »  f        ^*  t 

.  _  .     . :-.;_--:.    .  .".  _    L 

and  peopk  hadn't  been  able  to  do  Oat  for  mne  of 

^.-L:   _,':    i.    —,  —  .:   -  .-  .-   -...      .  .-    -    .  >-:   :: 

^^•A!     wlft^frw'     I^A     *^af^ si     ^^  WWA     ww*  ^^         •  J^    ^nM^si     m     ^hmwv^sn^^aittn^snnnBjAnVk 

AA  -OT^^hft-s      ^^**^]       •w%«%tf]       fa  •  mtmm  •  I  •  •  MM  I  '  ~  —     -  -        -  -  -   *     -          •»--•.  - 

^.^        *-^       i  _  •-  -_  ^  -  ^ • ^_         -7  __T        --«L         -    —    — 

those  two  rockers  the  ladies  had.    They  were  nice  ladies, 
and  aQ  die  girls  were  nice;  a  good  many  of  them  had 

-  :,,   V7:     - 


Yon  couldn't  tefl  the  diffe 

Yvitfv*         TTo  '^rrBnl^frt'f'  •^mwltfaw' 

*  --        __  _____    J  B_*_   j      -f 

- 

^t  didn't  hurt  'em!    It 

;::::-  :  /.  -  :7:   -,  ::  -- 
the  others  atteatioai  to 


I  - 


352  THE  BOARDMAN  FAMILY 

"  You  are  ?     Oh,  you  —  she  —  ?  " 

"  My  wife,"  said  the  other  proudly. 

"  Oh !  "  They  watched  her  for  a  second.  "  She  sure 
is  an  elegant  dancer,"  said  Hoffmeister.  "  Say,  I  said 
just  the  right  thing  that  time  to  the^ight  man,  hey? 
Well,  I  meant  it!" 

"  She  can't  keep  it  up  for  more  than  a  few  minutes  at 
a  time,"  said  the  big  man,  his  eyes  following  her  a  little 
anxiously.  "  I  don't  know  that  she  ought  to  dance  at  all. 
But  she  was  like  you ;  she  wanted  to  do  something  so  as  to 
be  <  in  it.'  " 

"  You're  good  and  in  it  yourself,"  said  Hoffmeister, 
eyeing  his  shoulder-straps,  with  a  faint  sigh.  "  Been 
married  long?  One  of  these  war-weddings,  hey?  Any 
idea  when  you'll  get  to  go  over  there  ?  " 

"  No  —  no  more  than  anybody  else.     Soon,  I  hope." 

"  Me  too ! "  little  Hoffmeister  declared  with  force. 
"  Gee,  but  I'd  have  liked  to  have  a  crack  at  'em !  " 

The  dance  ended  and  the  officer's  wife  paused  in  front 
of  them,  laughing,  though  she  limped  slightly.  They 
heard  her  late  partner  inquiring  curiously :  "  Say  what's 
the  emblem  for  —  the  one  you  got  on  that  chain?  You 
ain't  a  Elk  or  a  Buffalo,  or  anything?  They  don't  take 
in  ladies." 

"  It's  a  keepsake,  that's  all." 

Hoffmeister  was  bending  over  changing  the  record;  he 
raised  up  in  time  to  see  the  couple  about  to  depart,  and 
caught  the  officer's  eye,  and  saluted  cheerfully.  "Well, 
so  long!  Maybe  you'll  be  started  before  the  next  time 
I'm  here.  Hit  the  Kaiser  one  for  me,  will  you  ? " 

THE   END 

PRINTED    IN    THE    UNITED   1TATKS   OF   AMERICA 


'HE   following  pages  contain   advertisements   of 
Macmillan  books  by  the  same  author. 


Three  Short  Plays 


BY  MARY  S.  WATTS 

Author  of  "The  Rudder,"  "Nathan  Burke,"   "Van  Cleve," 
"  The  Rise  of  Jennie  Gushing,"  etc. 

Boards,  izmo.    Price  $1.25. 

Mrs.  Watts  as  a  dramatist  will  be  a  revelation  to 
those  who  know  her  only  as  one  of  the  country's  fore 
most  novelists.  The  three  plays  contained  in  this  vol 
ume  are  "  An  Ancient  Dance/'  a  tragedy  in  two  acts ; 
"  Civilization,"  in  one  act ;  and  a  farce  in  one  act,  "  The 
Wearin'  o'  the  Green." 

Mrs.  Watts'  keen  understanding  of  character  and 
the  dramatic  side  of  human  nature  has  gathered  from 
the  commonplace  incidents  of  life  something  which  is 
the  essence  of  tragedy  and  comedy  and  satire.  The 
people  of  her  plays  are  not  stage  figures,  they  are  the 
faces  one  passes  in  the  street  or  meets  in  drawing 
rooms,  and  their  stories  are  the  drama  of  to-day. 

"  The  literary  prestige  of  this  Ohio  author  will  be  measure- 
ably  increased  by  the  present  volume." — Cleveland  Plain 
Dealer. 

"  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  Mrs.  Watts  will  write  more  plays." 
—  Chicago  Herald. 

"  .  .  Well  written,  with  swift,  plausible  action,"—  Boston 
Herald. 

"  Mrs.  Watts  has  rapidly  arisen  to  a  place  of  honour  among 
the  small  group  of  our  contemporary  novelists  who  are  worth 
our  while."— -  New  York  Tribune. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers     64-66  Fifth  Avenue     New  York 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

The  Rise  of  Jennie  Gushing 

Cloth,  i2mo,  $1.30 

The  story  of  the  evolution  of  an  American  girl  who  at 
the  start  had  little  more  than  common-sense  and  an  innate 
right  feeling  toward  things — and  what  a  history  it  is,  and 
with  what  convincing  power  it  is  set  forth. 

"Mrs.  Watts  has  rapidly  risen  to  a  place  of  honor  hi  the  small 
group  of  our  contemporary  novelists  who  are  seriously  worth  our 
while.  Her  books  are  native  American  to  the  core.  .  .  .  This  truly 
remarkable  character  study,  remarkable  in  its  unforced,  altogether 
natural  consistency  and  development,  loving  service,  the  impulse 
to  aid  and  comfort  others,  is  the  dominating  trait  of  Jennie's  char 
acter.''—^^  York  Tribune. 

"A  masterpiece  of  characterization  as  were  her  'Nathan  Burke* 
and  'The  Legacy.'  .  .  .  Indeed,  it  is  a  masterpiece  of  character 
drawing  that,  having  all  these  fine  qualities,  Jennie  never  for  an  in 
stant  impresses  you  as  a  made-up  character,  created  to  work  out  a 
theory  or  to  draw  your  sympathy." — Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle. 

"Occasionally  a  book  appears  that  is  so  human,  so  vital,  that  one 
rejoices  and  suffers  with  the  people  that  inhabit  it.  'The  Rise  of 
Jennie  Gushing'  is  such  a  book,  and  the  growth  and  development 
of  Jennie  herself  is  the  best  work  that  Mrs.  Watts  has  done." — Boston 
Post. 

"A  novel  of  excellent  design  and  workmanship.  ...  Of  rare 
literary  quality  and  absorbing,  perennial  interest." — Philadelphia 
North  American. 

"No  book  of  Mrs.  Watts,  unless  it  be  her  'Nathan  Burke',  is  as 
strong,  as  fearless,  as  human  as  is  'The  Rise  of  Jennie  Gushing.'  .  .  . 
The  book  is  the  work  of  a  literary  genius." — Cleveland  Town  Topics. 


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Van  Cleve 

By  MARY  S.  WATTS,  Author  of  "Nathan  Burke,"  "The 
Legacy/'  etc.     Cloth,  i2mo.     $1.50 

Never  has  the  author  of  "Nathan  Burke"  and  "The  Legacy"  written 
more  convincingly  or  appealingly  than  in  this  story  of  modern  life. 
Those  who  have  enjoyed  the  intense  realism  of  Mrs.  Watts'  earlier 
work,  the  settings  of  which  have  largely  been  of  the  past,  will  welcome 
this  book  of  the  present  in  which  she  demonstrates  that  her  skill  is  no 
less  in  handling  scenes  and  types  of  people  with  which  we  are  familiar 
than  in  the  so-called  "historical"  novel.  "Van  Cleve"  is  about  a  young 
man  who,  while  still  in  his  early  twenties,  is  obliged  to  support  a  family 
of  foolish,  good-hearted,  ill-balanced  women,  and  one  shiftless,  pompous 
old  man,  his  grandmother,  aunt,  cousin  and  uncle.  Van  Cleve  proves 
himself  equal  to  the  obligation — and  equal,  too,  to  many  other  severe 
tests  that  are  put  upon  him  by  his  friends.  Besides  him  there  is  one 
character  which  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  reader  will  ever  forget — 
Bob.  His  life  not  only  shapes  Van  Cleve's  to  a  large  extent,  but  that 
of  several  other  people,  notably  his  sister,  the  girl  whom  Van  Cleve 
loves  in  his  patient  way. 

"Mrs.  Watts  brings  back  the  Spanish  War  in  a  style  Tolstoi  himself 

could  not  have  bettered Van  Cleve's  picture  deserves  to  hang 

on  the  wall  with  the  very  best  that  American  literature  has  painted  of 
the  American  man . "  — The  Bellman 

"Altogether  the  book  is  in  ripeness  and  mellowness,  the  best  of  the 
three  excellent  novels  which  Mrs.  Watts  has  to  her  credit,  and  it  may 
be  added  that  all  three  are  entitled  to  a  place  of  honor  in  American 
pictures  of  this  country."  — The  Outlook 


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The  Rudder 

BY   MARY   S.   WATTS 

Cloth> 


"  A  new  novel  by  Mrs.  Watts  is  always  the  event  of  the 
month  in  which  it  appears.  She  has  won  a  secure  place  in 
the  minds  of  serious  students  of  the  progress  of  American 
fiction  because  she  always  has  something  to  say  that  is 
worth  knowing  and  weighing."  —  New  York  Tribune. 

"  It  is  as  bright  a  book  as  can  be  imagined  ;  the  people 
are  not  merely  lifelike,  they  are  like  photographs  of  those 
we  know.  It  is  a  page  of  real  American  life  that  Mrs. 
Watts  has  torn  off  for  us,  a  page  that  is  thoroughly  enter 
taining  and  admirably  written."  •  —  New  York  Sun. 

"  A  worthy  successor  to  her  earlier  books,  '  Nathan 
Burke'  and  'Van  Cleve,'  is  her  new  novel,  'The  Rudder.' 
The  book  is  a  solid  piece  of  good  workmanship."  —  Phil 
adelphia  Evening  Telegram. 

"  It  disports  an  excellent  company,  touches  tense  and 
impelling  issues.  Vividly  conceived  and  well  executed. 
Convincing,  appealing,  artistically  fluid,  dispassionate  yet 
tender,  it  abounds  in  dry  humour  and  dramatic  situations 
most  quietly  handled,  it  is,  to  bestow  highest  commenda 
tion,  amazingly  lifelike.  Here  is  a  book  that  must  be  read 
to  be  properly  appreciated."  —  Chicago  Herald. 


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Nathan  Burke 

Decorated  Cloth,  ismo,  $1.50 

"Mrs.  Watts  depicts  a  whole  epoch.  I  do  not  know  of 
any  other  book  that  can  bring  the  customs,  thoughts, 
fashions,  and  mental  attitude  of  the  rural  United  States  of 
the  '405  so  minutely  before  the  eye." — The  Record-Herald. 

"Is  an  exquisitely  delightful  piece  of  literature  of  a  sort 
that  isn't  common  nowadays.  ...  A  fine,  wholesome,  and 
interesting  book  that  is  a  real  novel." — New  York  Herald. 

"Mrs.  Ducey's  letters  are  among  the  vastly  diverting 
things  in  modern  literature." — New  York  Tribune. 

"Told  in  a  manner  that  always  interests  and  never  tires, 
bound  up  with  the  development  of  the  hero  and  set  forth 
in  a  conversational  and  epistolary  style  that  carries  with 
it  the  conviction  of  faithfulness." — Pittsburgh  Chronicle. 

"Is  an  original,  unique  and  admirable  specimen  of  fic 
tion.  Rarely  has  a  more  profoundly  interesting  novel 
appeared  in  America." — Rochester  Post  Express. 

"A  vivid  and  interesting  picture  of  life,  with  glimpses  of 
persons  who  are  known  in  the  country's  history.  .  .  . 
The  reader  may  doubt  whether  this  particular  Nathan 
Burke  really  lived.  That  point  is  not  at  all  essential  to 
the  story,  whicn  may  be  accepted  as  picturing  a  period  and 
characters  which  could  not  well  be  duplicated  in  these 
days." — Buffalo  Express. 


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The  Legacy 

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"It  is  a  good  story  and  at  the  same  time  good  literature. 
Its  plot  is  handled  with  a  sure  hand,  its  occasional  touches 
of  emotion  are  genuine,  its  spirit  is  wholesome  and  buoy 
ant.  It  belongs  to  the  select  company  of  the  best  American 
novels. ' ' — Record-Herald. 

"In  'Nathan  Burke'  and  in  'The  Legacy/  Mrs.  Watts 
has  reached  a  high-water  mark  in  American  fiction,  has 
told  two  stories  of  genuine  Americanism.  Every  page 
shows  her  truly  remarkable  gift  of  observation — observa 
tion  shrewd  but  not  unkind — and  her  power  to  probe  the 
hearts  o*f  weak  and  erring  mortals.  Those  who  would 
keep  in  touch  with  the  best  product  of  story-telling  in 
America  must  not  miss  'The  Legacy."' — New  York  Globe. 

"It  is  a  story  exceptionally  well  told,  reaching  and 
maintaining  a  rare  pitch  of  interest." — New  York  World. 

."It  is  a  masterful  novel  throughout,  and  places  the 
writer  in  the  very  highest  rank  of  modern  authors." — Salt 
Lake  Tribune. 


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